Code: Shuffle
by Otritzi
Summary: AU, Several students at Kadic Academy have been having identical nightmares, are they linked in some way...and who is that mysterious young girl with the pink hair that all four of them keep seeing in their dreams?
1. The Nightmare

Title: Code: Shuffled

Summary: AU, Several students at Kadic Academy have been having identical nightmares, are they linked in some way...and who is that mysterious young girl with the pink hair?

Disclaimer: Me? Own Code: Lyoko, I wish.

Note: Odd and Yumi are roommates with Ulrich living just off campus, Odd's female but apparently only answers to her nickname. POV only uses knowledge of the one it's attached to. Forget all you know of Code: Lyoko, it doesn't apply to this fic, hence the AU, it is an alternate universe, one of trillions, in this particular one the adjustments are many, Odd being female is only one. Yumi boarding at the school being another, Ulrich not boarding is yet another. I've seen most of the Code: Lyoko shows, no need to point out facts like gender, living situation, and character number. I'd appreciate you pointing out only personality flaws in my characters, thank you.

Chapter 1: The Nightmare

(Jeremie)

Jeremie woke with a start. The dream he just had was so vivid, there was no way it couldn't have been real.

Jeremie's Nightmare

He saw his friends, Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd, wearing strange clothes standing around a girl with pink hair, protecting her from a massive force of weird, mechanical monsters. The creatures had opened fire on them and they, for the most part blocked the shots however each one took a shot and then they pixilated and faded out, one by one, starting with Odd. With his friends gone he watched as the lovely young lady that his friends had protected was beared down upon by the monsters, as the girl ran past him he felt himself appear as the monsters all opened fire and shot a barrage of lasers into his body, he almost felt the pain that would have gone along with the hundreds of shots that hit his body. He collapsed as his vision blacked out.

End Nightmare

Jeremie shook his head harshly, the young lady that he saw in his vision was beautiful. He wished he could meet her in real life. He was in a small part of his mind confused as to why he had that dream, he knew them because the girls often came to him for help with their homework...and one of them was a grade above him. Jeremie closes his eyes again and grumbles to himself

"What the hell was that...I don't even know those guys very well...so why did I feel so worried in the dream?"

(Odd)

Odd, an ornery, blonde American girl with a splotch of purple hair she dyed that way above her forehead who was probably the only girl that could get along with her roommate, woke up and looked over at her roommate, watching as Kiwi, Odd's little pet dog, climb onto Yumi's bed and curl up on her stomach. Odd smirks, lays her head back, and quietly talks to herself.

"My roomie's in for a rude awakening this morning...I'm glad I took Kiwi out before I went to bed."

Her life would be so boring if it weren't for Yumi always getting into fights with the creeps that attended Kadic Academy. Odd lives for those skirmishes, she's always loved watching people fight and fighting herself. For all intents and purposes Odd was known as a jokester on campus although most people wouldn't dare attack her, Yumi, or Ulrich, considering they are often seen sparring with one another in the commons area after school, with Ulrich, Yumi, and herself keeping track of their own wins, of course.

Odd had found herself attracted to the shy guys in school, specifically a young computer genius she lovingly refers to as Einstein, a young boy who lived in the room right below the room she and Yumi share. In fact, often during the night she would sneak down to Jeremie's room only to get cold feet and walk away without talking to him.

Odd looked over at her alarm clock, which said 0530, an hour and thirty minutes before breakfast, but only half an hour before the morning wake up call. She decides to get up anyway and get ready for the day. She gets up and puts on her robe and slips her feet into a pair of shower shoes (sandals), gathering up her usual outfit, purple jeans and a jacket, also purple, and her pink undershirt that was cut so that you could see her midriff when she left her jacket open, as well as all of her other personal bathing supplies. She opened the door to her room carefully, watching for Jim, the dorm's live in hall monitor. Seeing that all is clear she sneaks her way down to the girl's shower room and begins taking her shower, well before the morning rush even starts. She'd gotten into the habit of doing this just so she didn't have to deal with the principal's daughter, Sissi.

Odd washes her hair first, reapplying the purple dye to the area on the center of her head, she quickly finishes washing the rest of her body and is drying off when the morning wake up call sounds, shattering the quiet peace that had settled over the dorm. Odd quickly dresses herself and heads back up to her room to wake her roommate, who had taken to wearing earplugs for some reason.

(Yumi)

Yumi wakes up feeling a weight on her stomach. She looks down at what it could possibly be and sees Kiwi, her roommate's pet dog. She quietly picks the little dog up and sits up, getting out of bed to put Kiwi back into his drawer/bed. Yumi stretches a little and takes note that Odd's not in their room, she sighs and begins to gather items for her bath, hoping to beat Sissi down to the showers. Odd opens the door and looks walks in, closing it behind her.

"You know, I was just about to wake you up. I trust you put Kiwi to bed. Sissi's already out in the halls, I 'persuaded' a couple of the girls to stall her for you." Odd says as she walks over and sits down on her bed, watching her roommate pick up one last thing before heading down to the shower room.

"Thanks, Odd. Makes my day to know I get to have at least some hot water this morning, by the way what were you doing when you snuck out last night, visiting Jeremie again?" Yumi asks, her lips pulling into a slight smirk. Odd sighs and lowers her head.

"I didn't even knock on his door." Yumi laughs and heads down to the shower room, almost running there.

(Ulrich)

Ulrich had been having nightmares for quite some time, but it had been recurring these past few nights, it worried him. He'd see himself in a weird outfit guarding a young lady with pink hair alongside his two female friends, Odd and Yumi, almost every night. He quickly shook off the feeling that he was missing something and got ready for school, his parents hadn't seen it necessary for him to be a boarder at the school when they only lived a couple blocks from the front gate.

Quickly getting ready for the day he grabbed a Pop-tart and ran out the door, hoping to get to school in time to talk to his friends before school began for the day.

Arriving at the front gates of Kadic Academy, Ulrich sees his two friends standing near their usual bench with another boy, one he recognized as the class brain, Jeremie. He ran up to the group and slid to a stop next to Yumi.

"What's going on?" Ulrich asks.

"We were talking about a strange dream that the three of us have been having lately." Odd replies.

"The one about that girl with the pink hair?" Ulrich asks, lowering his voice so as not to be overheard.

"Yes, that one...what if it's not a dream but a vision of what's to come, certainly not the way I want to die." Yumi shivers.

"No kidding. Classes start in five minutes. See you later Ulrich, we gotta go."

Ulrich watches as the girls and Jeremie all take off to their first period class, which the three of them have together. Ulrich sighs and takes off toward the soccer field for his Phys. Ed. class. Silently hoping that the girls don't get into detention today, it's been almost a week since they last sparred, and he was starting to miss it.

End Chapter 1


	2. The Meeting

Only writing one disclaimer, check chapter 1

Chapter 2: The Call For Help.

(Jeremie)

Jeremie sat next to the two girls, feeling somewhat safe as the two of them were able to take down the star soccer player of the school. The girls often came to him for help so he knew them, somewhat. He had told them about the dream he had last night...and how each of them looked in that dream, it was strange, they both said they had the same dream from the one he indicated's point of view...it was too much to be a coincidence. The teacher's sharp voice as she called out attendance pulled Jeremie from his thoughts when she called his name. He responded and got out a pad of paper and a pencil in preparation to take some notes on the lecture that the teacher was going be giving in a few minutes. He quickly jotted down everything on the board and got out the assignment he predicted would be the one she would assign. He quietly awaits the bell to ring so he can talk with the girls about the dream they have apparently been sharing.

The final bell rings and thirty seconds later the girls, Jeremie and Ulrich all make their way to the park next to the school. The girls both turn to the guys and ask the same question at the exact same time.

"What do you think that dream we keep having means?"

Jeremie replies first, "Our dream isn't the exact same...we each experience it from a different points of view. My experiences in the dream come as a person outside of the battle, until the pink haired girl runs past me and I jump out between her and the monsters, then I wake up. Watching the fight however, as the three of you go down you seemingly shatter and fade away instead of leaving a corpse and it's almost like you bleed electricity."

"Scary thought there, Einstein, and you say that the cat girl from your dream resembles me?" Odd quips.

"Her face is almost a perfect copy of yours, and so is the body structure, except for the hands and ears. She even wears something similar to what you're wearing right now."

Odd quiets down and looks rather surprised, she has a pet dog and her dream self is a cat...looks like her name holds true even in her dreams. Jeremie chuckles lightly to himself.

(Yumi)

Yumi looks Ulrich straight in the eyes and asks one serious question.

"Should we keep this among ourselves or should we let the school know?"

Ulrich's reply is a clear "No, I don't think they'd let us keep attending Kadic if they thought we were mentally unstable. I haven't even told my parents about these dreams."

Yumi sighs and lowers her head in defeat, he's got a good point for why they shouldn't, even though they don't know each other that well...they still don't want to be separated. Yumi sits down beside Ulrich and leans against him, yawning slightly despite herself. Ulrich chuckles and relaxes with a yawn, dreams or not...all four of them need sleep, these dreams...no nightmares have been cutting into their rest.

(Ulrich)

Ulrich's body stiffens as Yumi leans on him, then he relaxes when he hears her yawn loudly. Looks like the dreams were taking a bigger toll on her than she was letting on, in seconds he felt her breathing even out and she was out like a light on his shoulder, in...the...park. Ulrich's eyes widen as he realizes just what he's in for if his parents find him. He decides a couple seconds later.

'To hell with my parents. We aren't doing anything other than catching up on a little sleep...the sleep so permeated by nightmares..."

Ulrich yawns and feels his eyelids get extremely heavy. In seconds he's fast asleep leaning his head against Yumi's head.

(Odd)

Odd looks at Jeremie with a confused expression on her face, did he just laugh at her? She quietly crouches down like a cat and flashes a grin when she pounces him to the ground. A few seconds later Jeremie rolls over, catching Odd off guard and sending her to the ground where she's pinned by Jeremie. Odd begins to feel herself blush, her face turns a lovely shade of red, as does Jeremie's when he realizes just what she's blushing for. Odd speaks up first.

"This doesn't leave the park, got that Einstein. As much as I'd love to go out with you...I'd rather not have my enemies in school use you to get to me."

Jeremie sighs, somewhat disappointed, here he was with a good looking girl and she had to be the most notorious prankster in school...and on top of that, she had at least half the faculty trying to get her expelled...yep, life sucks.


	3. The Kadic Lyoko Complex

Author's Note: Odd's female in this **_Alternate Universe_** Fic, same personality different body. My reason is due to her roommate, I had to change him to a her because she's rooming with Yumi in my fic and could not be male. Since this is an Alternate , Odd's only one of the people I changed, Aelita, when she shows up, won't be utterly defenseless and Jeremie, while only human and looks rather small, is strong enough to take care of himself outside of Lyoko. Odd, Ulrich, Yumi and Jeremie are also going to show some other alterations in later chapters.

And in case you haven't caught it yet here's changes to the gang that are evident in this chapter.

Odd - Female, Yumi's roommate

Yumi - Same grade as Odd and Jeremie, lives on campus

Ulrich - One grade above Odd, Yumi, and Jeremie, lives off campus with his parents

Jeremie - So far same as usual, but in better shape.

Aelita - Automated cybernetic avatar with Virtual counterpart, Xana-proof, shall be designated as AelitaR and AelitaV, cause they are two separate entities. AelitaR is a realistic, almost human automaton, has to stay within half a mile of the Lyoko Mainframe, is deactivated when Lyoko's power switch is off. AelitaV is the keeper of Lyoko.

The rest of the school isn't changed...except for the fact that there's a raging bully problem (will come into play later.)

Back to the story.

Ch. 3 The Kadic Lyoko Complex

(Odd)

Odd got off Jeremie and helped him up. She reached down and pulled out her cell phone to check the time when all four of their cells went off, displaying the same message.

"Need help at old factory"

Odd looks at her cell strangely and then looks off in the direction of the old factory that was supposedly abandoned, whoever just sent that message must be in trouble, she reached back and grabbed Jeremie's hand, forcefully pulling him after her, they make their way to the factory tailed closely by Ulrich and Yumi who were both trying their hardest to keep up with the practically flying Odd but losing ground steadily. Odd comes to a stop right in front of the entrance to the factory as her phone goes off again, with another text message.

"Take elevator down one floor."

Odd looks around the area as Ulrich and Yumi both catch up, slightly out of breath but running on adrenalin. She sees the elevator on the lower section of the factory's ground floor and releases Jeremie and jumps down, landing in a slight crouch and then runs to the elevator and waits for her friends to catch up.

(Jeremie)

Jeremie watches as Odd jumps from the catwalk they were standing on and lands, barely fazed by the landing as she runs up to the elevator and turns around then yells at the top of her lungs.

"Hurry up, guys! We don't know how much time whoever this is has left. I just wish I knew who was sending these messages to us!"

Jeremie sees a nearby rope and jumps out, grabbing hold of it and sliding down to the ground floor, being careful not to give himself rope burn. He lands on the ground next to Odd and turns to see Ulrich and Yumi swinging down on a pair of ropes that were hanging from the roof a small distance from the entrance. When the group all lands safely in front of the elevator they all step into the elevator and Ulrich hits the down button. Jeremie leans against the side of the elevator, catching his breath and recovering from being dragged at a full out sprint for a quarter mile. Odd leans against the wall beside Jeremie, not even tired from the sprint.

"You need to attend Gym more often, Einstein, you shouldn't be tired after that little run."

"Odd, not everybody is a cross country runner like you."

All four of them jump when they feel the elevator stop. The door of the elevator opens, revealing a young lady with pink hair and eyebrows, wearing an outfit that looked like it was purchased twenty years ago but still fit perfectly. The strange girl addresses the four teens.

"Welcome to the Kadic Lyoko Complex. This base houses a supercomputer that contains the virtual world of Lyoko, my counterpart has already warned me of your coming. I ask that you keep this place secret, it is not meant for the prying eyes of the public. Come here."

Jeremie, reaching his second wind, dashes forward and stands next to the strange girl, noticing that she's not human when he sees her sit down in the chair next to the holo-projector in the center of the room, her eyes glow for a short time and the computer begins to type for her, she's not even using the keyboard.

"My designation is Aelita, I am an Automated Cybernetic Avatar or ACA for short. I am linked, rather painstakingly to this computer. I cannot leave this complex, I am linked completely to my virtual counterpart, if she is deleted I am deactivated. She obviously needs help now, so I'm going to send you four in. Leave your cell phones here and go down one floor and step into the scanners, they look like massive pods. I will do the rest."

The four of them nod and follow the ACA's instructions. They place their cell phones on the table in the holo-projector room and stepped back into the elevator, which went down one more floor to the Scanner room. The door opened up and the four of them each picked a pod and entered it. Over the intercom they heard Aelita's 'voice' practically echo inside of their heads.

"Profile: Jeremie, Profile: Odd, Profile: Yumi, Profile: Ulrich...Scanners activated...Virtualization!"

(Yumi)

Yumi felt a gust of warm air blow up from the floor of the scanner. She woke up floating several feet in the air beside her friends. Looking at herself she noticed that she was wearing a kimono that had been tied up so that it did not hinder her movements, she also had a ribbon tied around her waist and felt a pair of metal objects attached to the ribbon, reaching back she unhooks them and pulls them in front of herself.

A look of realization flashes across her face as she suddenly knows exactly how to use her weapon and she feels a pulse in her mind. The others look like they came to the same realization. This is where their dream had been happening...and now it was coming true. Yumi looks over at her friends and sees that Odd was indeed a cat girl in her virtual form, Ulrich looks like a samurai, with a few minor differences, and Jeremie...he looks like a sniper, guns and everything, he's even got a pair of sheathed combat knives strapped to his outer thigh. She hears Odd make a comment.

"This just keeps getting better..." Odd takes a deep breath and screams, "Aelita!"

A young girl who looks like an elf runs into the clearing that they are standing in, it's obvious that they are in a forested region. The girl sees them and smiles. She starts talking to them.

"My name is Aelita, I take it you met my Cybernetic counterpart in your world. We have the same designation...please feel free to come up with a way to differentiate, because the other Aelita is listening in to our conversation."

As if on cue the robotic Aelita's voice echoes out of nowhere.

"Yes, I am here, I shall be informing you of your remaining life, ammunition, and energy readings. Currently you are all at 100 percent health, ammo and energy. Just so you know, when your health runs out you will be ejected rather forcefully from Lyoko, so be careful. We would rather you not get devirtualized."

The Aelita in front of them starts talking again.

"Please familiarize yourself with your forms and weaponry...we are about to have company, I was running from a group of Kankrelets, little monsters with laser cannons."

The voice from above reverberates down to them.

"Incoming Kankrelets, Odd your weapon's built into your wrist and your claws can be charged with electricity, You can also summon a barrier by crossing your arms in front of yourself. You only have twenty shots before you will need to be reloaded, good luck."

Odd nods and taps her wrist experimentally, she hears a click, signifying that her weapon's armed, she smirks and dashes toward a nearby tree climbing up it quickly and getting into position above where Aelita came in from.

Jeremie dashed back and ran straight up a tree, activating his Lyoko power, Vanish to hide from the Kankrelets. Yumi and Ulrich took up positions in front of Aelita brandishing their weapons expertly, preparing to defend themselves from the coming onslaught. The voice from above calls down to Yumi and Ulrich giving them one last bit of advice.

"Your weapons are impervious to damage and can deflect and even reflect the enemies' lasers, Protect my virtual self and get her to the tower that is glowing red...I've memorized your cell phone numbers and I will have a lot to tell you after this is over."

(Ulrich)

Ulrich was completely confused as to what was going on, all he knew was that something that was after the one he had been ordered to protect, he had a weapon, he had knowledge that came from nowhere...he even knew about an ability called triplicate, which he quickly knew could be used as a distraction technique and that the clones were solid until hit. He also had a pack of small throwing stars and Kunai knives attached to his leg, obviously he was more of a ninja than a samurai...no matter what his attire said. He had intimate knowledge of all his weapons, not to mention his new abilities and powers.

Activating his Triplicate skill, he sends his clones to hide out behind the trees of the path Aelita came out of. He looks up and sees Odd preparing to drop in behind the enemy and blast them. He saw Yumi holding her fans defensively and preparing for the coming storm of laser-fire that she would be blocking for Aelita. He even saw Jeremie arming his sniper rifle and heard him fire off two shots before putting it away and pulling out his pistols. The voice from the heavens commented on Jeremie's aim.

"Nice shot, you got three of them in two shots. Seven Kankrelets remaining. The activated tower is just down that path, you might have to abandon your ambush and rush Aelita there, if anyone dies before the time reset that will happen when you deactivate that tower they will not be revived."

The original Ulrich and Yumi look at each other, eyes wide. Ulrich turns his attention back to the approaching Kankrelets and his clones jump out from the sides, slicing through four of the enemies before being hit. Ulrich dashes forward, deflecting shots left and right as he somewhat recklessly charges into his enemies, slicing them apart before they even knew what happened. Odd dropped out of the tree and picked the last one off before it could retreat and summon reinforcements. Odd looks to her allies and they all nod and put their weapons away, dashing toward the tower as fast as their virtual bodies could go. Aelita dashes up to the tower and walks straight through the wall.

The four friends all gather in front of the tower, for a few last words about the mission. Jeremie speaks first.

"Well, we won...this round. I have a feeling we are in for a hell of a lot more fighting like this. I admit that this Aelita's cute. I'd like to know how long this place has been operational...there's so much we don't know about this."

"I agree with Einstein...we did good this round...but what happens if we have to help out here again...we were ordered to keep a secret...can we...and more importantly should we?"

Yumi sighs and leans against Ulrich.

"I have a feeling the nightmare's only just begun...I wonder what coming here did to us...cause I have a feeling that our lives just took a very serious turn."

Ulrich wraps an arm around Yumi.

"Yes...I'd have to agree...I believe we should keep the secret, I'd rather not have the deaths of both Aelita's on my conscience and I know none of you would want that either."

Odd sighs as a bright white light comes from the tower and engulfs the group.

End Chapter 3


	4. The Morning of

A/N: If you don't understand by now that knowledge of the core Code: Lyoko universe doesn't matter for this fic, I'm telling you again. This fic is a very distant AU of the Code: Lyoko series, as such the characters' genders, living situation, age, and other such items are at my mercy.

And thank you Eragon4Life and Angels 'n Dreams for reviewing..

Chapter 4: The Morning Of

(Jeremie)

Jeremie wakes up in a cold sweat. That had to be the most realistic dream he'd ever had about that girl. A few seconds later his phone goes off and he picks it up, he doesn't recognize the number displayed on the caller ID feature of his cell phone. He decided to answer it anyway. Picking up the phone he hears the voice from what he thought was a dream. Aelita's voice sounds over the phone.

"Gather your friends and meet me in the main room of the Kadic Lyoko Complex. You and your friends just helped me and my virtual counterpart stop XANA, a demonic computer virus, from setting off the nuclear power plant near Kadic."

Jeremie's eyes fly wide open and he quickly calls Ulrich and Yumi, figuring that Odd was with Yumi. He tells them to meet them at the factory that they dreamed about. The others were probably wondering how the hell he knew that they had the same dream he did. Jeremie takes off running through the halls and hits the staircase with precision, not missing one landing as he practically flies down the stairs and out into the courtyard, he runs straight through the park and to the old abandoned factory, the cover for the Kadic Lyoko Complex. Odd and Yumi arrive a few seconds later, Yumi somewhat winded and Odd looking like she's ready to run another couple kilometers. Ulrich appears soon afterward.

Jeremie leads the group into the factory and standing there in the center of the ground floor was the robotic Aelita from their latest dream. The four of them look at the Aelita standing before them and before they can ask any questions Aelita begins talking to them.

"Welcome back, my friends. The four of you are the new guardians of Lyoko. As such you are welcome to use this facility for any purpose you see fit. Everything here is immune to the effects of Lyoko's Towers. This includes myself, the factory equipment you see behind me and the elevator on my right. Follow me."

Jeremie, Ulrich, Odd and Yumi all follow Aelita in a daze, this is utterly amazing. Odd finds her voice first as they walk toward the boiler room of the Factory section of the Kadic Lyoko Complex.

"So that dream I had last night that ended in a bright white light wasn't a dream."

Aelita makes a noise that sounds somewhat like a giggle.

"No, Odd. That was real...it was supposed to happened...later today in fact. We were fast enough to prevent the destruction of the city. One of the effects of disabling the towers launches a return to the past, we literally go back in time to the morning of the day the tower is activated. XANA, the demonic AI that is currently in control of Lyoko, all six hundred and seventy-five complexes and fifteen thousand sectors. Each Complex has an Aelita ACA and Aelita.EXE. This complex is designated as Complex Zero, most of XANA's attacks originate here, it is also the smallest of the Lyoko complexes with only five sectors."

Aelita leads the group through several rooms, ending with them in the Holo-projector Room. Ulrich finds his voice next.

"So this is one of a global network of facilities? Man, that's...insane. Are there other groups like this one...or has XANA activated the other facilities yet?"

Aelita smiles sadly and looks at Ulrich. She answers his questions.

"Yes, this is the original facility, also where XANA was exiled to the virtual worlds of Lyoko. XANA was originally a master hacker, he was feared by most of the governments of the world, he created and built the super computer that is on the third basement floor of this complex. Lyoko cannot be shut off and is protected from damage by a strange energy shielding. XANA has activated one other facility, the Smith Center Lyoko Complex, there's only two warriors there, one has the call-sign Otritzi, and the other's call sign is Elazul, they're very skilled at what he does, and they've got access to five hundred of the sectors, you may see one or both appear in this area sometime in the future, Otritzi's working on a way to travel through the network."

Aelita closes her eyes for a second, listening to her virtual counterpart for a bit before opening her eyes again.

"My virtual counterpart wants to know what your group's call-signs will be, and you are to expect an e-mail from Otritzi, he tends to know much more than he really should."

Yumi leans against the wall and asks one question.

"Did getting virtualized change our bodies in any way? I've been hearing voices since this morning and I even heard some rather disturbing stuff as Odd and I came here that Odd couldn't hear."

Aelita looks relieved. She answers that question truthfully.

"Yes, it does change you. The four of you were given powers by your virtualization. Odd, I believe your hearing and reflexes have been improved and you probably noticed your claws too. Jeremie, I believe you can cause yourself to fade for short periods of time, and Yumi, your Psionics have been unlocked. Ulrich, no doubt you realized that you can run faster than you used to, try using your triplicate and Supersprint techniques sometime, if I'm right it will also work in this world. It's what we call the Lyoko effect, any being that finds its way into Lyoko for any reason is altered."

Odd smirks and remarks, "That is nice, I'm a cat girl now...I only hope my dog recognizes me. Is there any way to fully transform into our Lyoko selves?"

Aelita responds quietly.

"There is...but do not use it unless there's a tower activated...it wakes XANA."

Odd nods solemnly and asks.

"Is there any way to prevent a XANA attack?"

Aelita again responds quietly.

"No, I'm afraid that we have no way to circumvent a XANA attack. And the return to the past program only allows us to live the time during XANA's attack like the attack never happened in the first place. I'm sorry you have to experience this...if there was another way we would have used it long ago."

All four of them smile softly at the downcast ACA and Jeremie responds for the group.

"Don't feel sorry for us, we came to help you and your virtual self of our own accord. We brought this upon ourselves, all you did was ask for help. We responded to the call."

A loud ding sounds from the terminal of the Holo-projector. A window pops up with a message from Otritzi.

(Odd)

Odd jumps four feet into the air when the message alert goes off. She calms herself and rubs her arm, trying to calm herself down. The group walks over to the terminal and reads the message.

The Message

Dear Kadic Lyoko Group

This is Otritzi. What happened...I was training on Lyoko when I felt the Return to the Past program activate from your end. You know doing that boosts XANA's power...what was his attack?

Please respond.

Your ally,

Otritzi.

End Message

Aelita responds to the message and another one pops up on the screen.

Second Message

Go to Lyoko, I'm going to be waiting for them in the Mountain region of your system. Watch your backs from now on and keep your promises to Aelita.

End Second Message

Odd, Ulrich, Jeremie and Yumi all walk over to the elevator and go down one floor to the scanner room and enter the scanners.

"Transfer, Ulrich, Yumi, Odd, and Jeremie...Scanner...Virtualization."

Odd, Ulrich, Yumi and Jeremie land on a plateau in the mountain region when they see another being, obviously male with headphones resting around his neck and a black tank top with black jeans and a pair of what looked like crimson wings coming from his back, he even had crimson tail feathers tipped in a gold color, fade into view, as if he had teleported there before any of them have a chance to say anything he asks one question.

"Has the Kadic AelitaR briefed you on what Lyoko is yet?"

Yumi responds first, assuming AelitaR is the ACA that they were talking to a few minutes ago.

"She told us some of it...she also told us a little about you...but how are you here? She said that you didn't have the ability to travel between Lyoko complexes yet."

The being closes his eyes and responds with a quiet tone.

"I can travel between Lyoko Systems...I just can't be devirtualized while I'm not at my home system and my powers are diminished outside of the Smith Center Lyoko system...which has two hundred and fifty regions...but it controls half the United States. I have to be heading back now, just be careful with your AelitaV...never let XANA's monsters get a hold of her. Specifically one known as the Scyphozoa. It's purpose is to remove Aelita's personality and take control of her...it is also capable of trapping any Lyoko warrior inside of Lyoko...permanently, avoid it like the plague."

As the being finishes talking AelitaV runs up to the group and calmly tells them they are about to have company. A voice echoes down from above them.

"Incoming Hornets, Kankrelets, Blocks, and Krabs from the cave behind AelitaV's position. Get ready for a fight, XANA's pissed. Otritzi, why did you have to tell them about XANA's Scyphozoa? You know XANA doesn't like us talking about it."

"They had a right to know. Positions, everyone!"

(Yumi)

Jeremie activates his power and disappears for a bit, getting into sniping position atop a rock on the opposite side of the plateau. Odd runs up to a nearby wall and climbs up to where she's positioned over the entrance of the cavern Aelita came out of. Otritzi moves the headphones around his neck up so they cover his ears and he assumes a fighting stance, folding his wings behind him, his hands appearing to catch fire. Ulrich draws his sword and Yumi pulls out both of her fans and prepares to start blocking. The first set of Hornets to come out of the cave met quick ends via Jeremie's sniper rounds. Ulrich triplicates and he and his clones super sprint into the cave, leaving behind a golden trail of energy as they zip into the cave, Ulrich coming out alone a few seconds later. The voice from above echoes down to them.

"Nice technique Ulrich, You wiped out all the Kankrelets and Blocks in the cave, but why did you run from the Krabs?"

Ulrich tries his best to keep the humor from his voice and quips.

"I hate seafood."

A pair of Krabs march out of the cave only to fall victim to Odd's ambush, each Krab gets a pair of Laser arrows to the symbol on it's top, exploding in unison. The voice from above echoes down in a light tone.

"Good shooting Odd, I'm going to materialize the four of you after you get AelitaV to a deactivated tower, she's taken a few hits. The closest one is to the south of you, you should be able to see it in the distance."

Otritzi bows respectfully to the group and fades out, teleporting away. Odd, Jeremie, Ulrich, and Yumi all begin heading toward the tower, followed closely by AelitaV. As the group nears the tower they look to one another and then sigh. Life takes interesting twists and turns, they were just a group of misfits in at boarding school a few days ago, now they are protectors of a virtual world that is home to an entity capable of destroying the whole world. Yumi's suddenly reminded of an American song she heard some time ago, Boulevard of Broken Dreams. Aelita enters the tower and a few seconds later the group is materialized on Earth again. They all sigh and walk into the elevator. Mission accomplished...for now.

(Ulrich)

Ulrich and Yumi walk into the schoolyard from the park. They had been conversing about finding a hidden passageway or two that would lead them to the Factory, they knew there had to be several...Aelita told them of one passageway the led to the park just inside of the Kadic Academy walls.

The four friends had been searching the school yard for other such passageways but were unable to find any feasible hidden passages. Yumi and Ulrich were searching the area around the dormitories when Ulrich stumbled upon a hidden door beside the boiler in the basement utility room that led to the sewers where they had left their skateboards and Jeremie's scooter.

The two of them smile and high-five, Yumi whips out her cell phone and calls Jeremie, hoping that him and Odd haven't gotten into trouble. Ulrich knows that Odd wouldn't go too far with her crush, she wants to keep him as a friend at least. Yumi pulls the phone away from her ear as Ulrich hears a loud "YES!" come from the phone.

Yumi holds the phone close to her ear again and begins hurriedly answering questions from the other end of the phone...Ulrich didn't paying much attention to what she says...he's too busy staring at her, she is beautiful in his eyes...he can't help himself. He walks toward her and stops himself just short of wrapping his arms around her, wonders how she will react to what he's about to do. Yumi ends the phone call and looks at Ulrich, noticing how close he's standing to her. He smirks at her.

"I was wondering when you were going to finish that call."

Ulrich leans forward and wraps his arms around Yumi, she stiffens in his arms but then loosens up when he complements her.

"You're beautiful. No matter what Sissi or anyone else says, I think I'm in love with you. Sissi never stood a chance."

Yumi wraps her arms around Ulrich and plants a kiss on his cheek.

"I'll try to remember that when Sissi starts trying to act like you belong to her. Want to take our relationship to boyfriend/girlfriend status?"

Ulrich smiles into her hair and replies softly.

"I thought you'd never ask."

Yumi and Ulrich break apart and Ulrich walks Yumi back to her room before heading home for the night. He's feeling pretty good right now, he and his friends had just found a secret universe buried inside of a global network of supercomputers and he now had the girlfriend of his dreams.


	5. The Real Battle Begins

Author's Note: This isn't the same universe as the show, therefore I'm free to create the characters how I see fit. Forget what you know about Code: Lyoko for a moment and enjoy the story I'm telling. All four of the main characters are somewhat more casual at the moment because they have yet to feel the full weight of XANA's effect on their lives...in fact, they are treating Lyoko like a secret game that only they know of right now. Otritzi and Elazul are going to be much, much more serious about everything as they've been fighting XANA longer. Also, Ulrich has a tendency to eat all his meals at school, he doesn't like his dad's cooking. And to Eragon4Life, XANA's pissed at Otritzi, not the Kadic Lyoko Team.

* * *

Chapter 5: The Real Battle Begins. 

(Odd)

Odd is sitting in the cafeteria eating breakfast with his friends while they have a slightly hushed conversation about Lyoko and XANA. Odd knew that Lyoko wasn't a game...but...nothing there felt real, she could do so much in Lyoko, she didn't have to follow the rules of society, she could be her true self...even though that self was a cat. Although it isn't like she lets society control her anyway, she's mischievous and cunning, as well as outgoing and silly...all in all it was hard to hate her unless she wanted you to.

She sighs and quits daydreaming as the others had asked her a question and were staring at her waiting for an answer.

"I didn't catch the question...could you repeat it?"

"We wanted to know how your last exploration trip to Lyoko went. You've been spending a lot of time inside of Lyoko."

Odd sighs, she knew they were going to ask that. She was plagued with visions so often that she'd begun not telling her friends about them unless it was important...she still couldn't control it, which was what she was after, and why she spent so much time inside of Lyoko, with AelitaV and Otritzi, who seemed to spend more time in Lyoko than she did.

"It went alright, AelitaV and I were exploring the Kadic Arctic region last night. We stopped at one of the towers around midnight and Aelita and I did a little surfing through Lyoko's archives to locate some of the other Lyoko Complexes and try to find a way to jump systems like Otritzi does. Needless to say, we didn't find anything."

Jeremie sighs and leans back in his chair.

"I've been working with AelitaR on programming in a way to weaken XANA, but we haven't had any luck. At the rate XANA is gaining power he'll be capable of human possession by Christmas. Otritzi's been real busy stopping his attacks if you can tell, I think we lived last Friday four times."

Yumi drops her head into her hands and sighs loudly.

"That was the longest day in my life. You guys weren't here for most of the evening and Marco was looking for a fight all evening on Friday. It was ridiculous, I got sick of avoiding him and beat his ass to the ground the third time I had to live it. XANA's got to be running out of ideas by now."

Ulrich, who had been quietly listening to his friends, taps Odd on the shoulder and points to the principle's daughter, Sissi, who is heading their way with her two enforcers, a decently muscled kid named Nicholas and a more nerd-like boy who was rumored to be one of the more cunning students in the school. Odd brings her finger up and taps it to her lips while looking at the others, silently telling them to stop talking about Lyoko. The other two get the message and turn to face Sissi and her posse. Sissi speaks first.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the Misfits. Ulrich, I'll never understand how you can hang out with these three, they are by far the worst people to be hanging out with..."

Ulrich rolls his eyes and interrupts her.

"These are my friends, Sissi. We all have something in common. And to answer your question, I don't care about popularity, they are my friends and I'd rather die than abandon them...Got it?"

Sissi looked completely shocked, probably because he openly said that popularity wasn't everything. She huffed and stomped off, her enforcers following her closely. Ulrich knew pissing Sissi off would only get him and his friends into trouble, but he knew they didn't care. There was nothing Sissi could do to them that they wouldn't be able to fix.

Odd finishes her breakfast and tells the others she's going to go feed Kiwi then walks out of the cafeteria and heads up to her dorm room. On her way into the dorms she is confronted by Marco, a super aggressive Sophomore who likes to bully everybody at school, and his main enforcer, Drake, a musclebound Junior who is Marco's roommate and closest confidant.

"Alright, little lady, now that you're alone we are going to have that little 'chat' I promised you last week."

Odd raises an eyebrow at that, she last week seemed so long ago to her, after all...she had to relive most of the past week more than once, she had completely forgotten about what she had done to make him so mad at her. She quickly takes a step back and puts both of her hands behind her back, extending her claws from her fingertips and smirking at him arrogantly.

"What's there to talk about, you fell victim to one of my many pranks. You know as well as I do that I've pranked over three fourths of the school, including half the staff and all in good fun too. I seem to recall that only you and Sissi can't learn to laugh at yourselves when something ridiculous happens to you. What's the matter, don't like your ego prodded?"

As she finishes her little taunt Marco and Drake quietly slip on some brass knuckles and Marco takes a swing at her face. Odd merely leaned away from the punch and watched it fly past her, the arrogant smirk still in place, despite her opponents having weapons when she seemed completely unarmed. Marco pulled his hand back and Drake went to kick her with his rather heavy boots, she jumps up and over Drake, landing squarely on his shoulders and putting her clawed hands on the top of his head. Odd clicks her tongue at Drake's pathetic attempt to kick her and gracefully backflips off of his shoulders, knocking him face first into the dirt while she lands like a cat on a nearby tree branch. She makes another sarcastic remark toward Marco.

"Nice chatting with you, maybe we can do this again sometime, but right now, I've got somewhere I need to be."

Odd hops off into the trees and drops down from the tree closest to the dormitory buildings. Odd quietly walks into the building and heads up to her dorm room to feed her dog.

* * *

(Marco) 

Marco can't figure it out. Odd had never been THAT athletic before, maybe she was faking being clumsy or something, she never seemed to get hurt when she tripped or fell anymore and her reaction time was insane, she had just gotten out of a fight that was supposed to leave her broken and bloodied by escaping to the trees and running through them like it was a natural thing for her.

He growls at himself for letting her escape and heads into the cafeteria with Drake, who was still dusting himself off from his fall. The two of them get their food and walk over to their usual seats to plot and plan like normal. Drake looks up from his plate and asks one question to his friend.

"How the hell did she do that? She's never been that quick before."

Marco stabs his fork into the piece of mystery meat the cafeteria ladies call sausage on his plate and growls again.

"It's almost like she's not human anymore. Maybe she never was, you know she had cat claws on her hands while she was crouched on your shoulders. Perhaps she's some kind of mutant or something?"

Drake puts a large spoonful of cereal into his mouth, chewing a bit before swallowing.

"You know, Ulrich's been getting a heck of a lot faster at the soccer games and sometimes he even seems to vanish with the ball and reappear next to the opposition's goalie, maybe whatever affected Odd affected him and their friends too. You know the goth girl and that Jeremie kid."

Marco's eyes widen as his partner says that, he'd never thought about it like that. Perhaps Odd and her friends had done something to themselves and gained some kind of super powers or something. Marco vowed to himself to find out what they were doing when they practically disappeared.

* * *

(Ulrich) 

Ulrich watches as Marco and his bodyguard walk into the cafeteria. Drake had obviously gotten his face shoved into the dirt at some point on his walk over to the cafeteria. He would have to ask Odd if she did it at lunch.

Ulrich gets up and dumps his tray walking out of the cafeteria, he was closely followed by Yumi, who had been talking to him using her new Psionics, it was comforting how she was nice enough to ask permission before reading his thoughts, although...he did have to be careful to hide his feelings deeper than usual. He and Yumi walk in a rather comfortable silence for a while, Ulrich was walking her to her first class and he didn't realize it until Yumi spoke up.

"Thanks for walking me to class, Ulrich, but you had better hurry to your next class, the teachers are going to wonder why you're late."

Ulrich blushes a bit and tells her.

"I'll see you at lunch, Yumi."

Ulrich mutters the command to activate his supersprint and takes off for his first class of the day, World History, the effect of that in the real world makes him little more than a blur to everyone else in the school as he runs on the wall to avoid being tardy. His teacher starts taking role call as his students find their way to their seats. He answers when his name is called and then promptly rests his chin on his arms with his eyes closed, thinking about Yumi and how much he likes her, glad that they had finally confessed their feelings about one another.

While Ulrich was walking toward the cafeteria for lunch he sees Yumi, Odd and Jeremie walking toward him from the building where their last class of the morning was. Yumi telepathically greets Ulrich as he dashes toward them, without the aid of his supersprint. Ulrich slows down to a walk and walks beside his friends as they head toward the cafeteria. In the line to get their food Ulrich asks Odd about what happened after she left breakfast to feed Kiwi.

"So...what happened to you after you left our presence this morning?"

Odd orders her food from the lunch lady and starts heading over to the gang's usual table.

"Not much, Marco and Drake tried to start a fight with me, I dodged their punches and kicks and took to the trees after knocking Drake on his face. Why do you ask?"

Ulrich orders his food and follows Odd over to their usual table.

"When the two of them walked into the cafeteria Drake was dusting himself off as if he'd tripped or something a few moments before. Thanks for satisfying my curiosity."

Odd smirks as she sits down to eat.

"You know that curiosity killed the cat, right?"

Ulrich smirks back and replies in kind.

"Look who's talking, kitty."

Odd makes a strange purring noise as she responds to his jab.

"So what, I'm a cat...big deal...the saying still holds true, samurai."

Yumi walks over to the table accompanied by Jeremie. Yumi sits beside Ulrich and Jeremie sits beside Odd.

"So, Ulrich, what were the two of you talking about?"

Ulrich turns to Jeremie and smirks.

"What happened to Drake this morning."

Yumi appears to be quietly eating her food she was talking telepathically with her friends.

'So Odd purring had nothing to do with your conversation?"

"Actually, Yumi, Odd was probably just purring because I called her kitty."

Yumi nods while putting another piece of her meatloaf into her mouth. She asks another question telepathically to her friends.

'You guys know that Aelita's expecting us to stop by the KLC tonight for another training session. How's your visions coming, Odd.'

Odd lowers her eyes to her food.

"Not good actually. I can't control anything about them...it's driving me nuts, what good is Precognition if I can't use it when I want to."

Odd starts to quickly pack her food into her mouth and chews just throughly enough to be able to swallow. Jeremie speaks up next.

"AelitaR and I have been working on a way to increase the range she is able to get from the KLC. So far we haven't been able to get her farther than the front door, but we're trying. If I can I'll try to get it so she can get to the store near the factory so she can keep the fridge in our little lounge stocked. She's got access to a lot of funds, considering Lyoko Industries has stopped monitoring the Lyoko Complexes but is still funding their upkeep."

Odd swallows her the last bite of her food and looks at Ulrich who had barely touched his food.

"Hey, samurai, you going to eat that?"

Ulrich looked at Odd then back to his plate and stuck his fork into his meatloaf.

"Kitty, I just want my meatloaf and drink, you can take the rest."

Odd purrs and quickly moves most of Ulrich's food from his plate.

Yumi's phone begins to vibrate in her pocket, signifying a text message, as she gets ready to go put her empty tray away. She quietly uses her clairvoyance to look down at the message. As she walks toward the trash can she telepathically talks to her friends.

'Aelita says XANA's awake and has activated a tower. She also says to hurry, he's taken over the city's mass transit system and is bringing the vehicles toward the school.'

Odd, Ulrich, and Jeremie simultaneously stand and dump their trays, all walk out of the cafeteria together.

* * *

(Drake) 

Drake and Marco both stand and dump their trays, following after Odd and her friends as they silently but swiftly leave the cafeteria and head towards the park. Watching the four friends closely they notice Jeremie vanish into thin air and Ulrich vanishes in a blur, Odd jumps towards a tree and practically flies up it and Yumi turns to look at the two of them, her eyes glowing dangerously.

Drake watches as Marco is struck from behind by Ulrich, who flew out of nowhere, a split second later and then feels a heavy blow against the back of his head from something else. As he lays on the ground, stunned, he sees Jeremie fade back into view next to Yumi, Odd drop out of a nearby tree beside Yumi, and Ulrich run, at normal speed, up to Yumi. The four quietly turn and leave the clearing where Drake and Marco were laid flat.

* * *

(Jeremie) 

Jeremie and his friends quietly open the manhole cover in the park and climb down, Yumi replacing the manhole cover with her telekinesis as she climbed down to where she and her friends had left their skateboards and Jeremie's scooter. The four of them take off for the KLC through the sewers, not feeling bad in the least for flattening Drake and Marco for trying to follow them. Jeremie, Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi all step into the elevator and go down to the Holo-Projector room. AelitaR is standing next to the elevator's door when the it opens.

"Get down to the Scanners...AelitaV needs your help in the Kadic Mountain region, she's trapped in a cave with a horde of Kankrelets and Blocks patrolling the area. You need to get there before the Scyphozoa shows up and finds her!"

The elevator door closes and the four friends go on down to the Scanner room, once inside the four of them dash off to their scanners and await virtualization. They hear AelitaR's voice echo over the PA system.

"Transfer, Jeremie; Transfer, Odd; Transfer, Ulrich; Transfer, Yumi...Scanner...Virtualization!"

The four of kids appear above a plateau as a several of the Kankrelets and Blocks turn to face them. Ulrich, thinking quickly activates his supersprint and dashes past several of the Blocks slicing them in half with his sword. Yumi pulls out her fans and Jeremie uses his power to get over to AelitaV while the others lure the monsters away from Aelita's hiding place. Jeremie reappears beside Aelita, deactivating his power and signals for her to be quiet while they sneak off toward the tower. Aelita follows his instructions and the two of them take off running for the activated tower.

AelitaR receives an instant message from Elazul at the terminal and reads it to the group in Lyoko.

"Otritzi's coming to help you guys, he'll be there momentarily, he said he spotted the Scyphozoa traveling between systems away from our system, go nuts guys."

* * *

(Yumi) 

Ulrich, Yumi and Odd have taken down most of the Kankrelets and all but a couple blocks when a weird wall of energy cuts through the middle of their group, blasting one of Ulrich's clones. The other clone and the real Ulrich fuse and the group all get a good look at the new monster that came into play, it looks like a round sphere that opened up to reveal a weak point only a few seconds before it fires, AelitaR's voice echoes down from above them.

"That thing's called a Megatank, be careful against it, it's powerful and it's armored shell prevents most damage. The only way to kill it is to strike it while it's open and right before it fires, or shove it off an edge."

Odd grins and walks forward, challenging the Megatank, the other two step to the side and dash past the tank at full speed while it prepares to fight Odd. Odd's tail swishes back and forth as she aims her wrist where the weak point will be when it opens. Yumi hears the tank's weapon charge and then there's an explosion, a few seconds later Odd catches up to them coughing a little bit.

"I got caught in that blasted tank's explosion, I think it drained me of a few life points, could you give us an update, AelitaR."

AelitaR's voice echoes down to the gang.

"Aelita, 70; Jeremie, 100; Odd, 20, ten of your life points were taken when the tank blew up on you and forty of them were taken when it hit you as it blew up. Ulrich, 60; Yumi, 40. Aelita and Jeremie are at the tower, good job guys. You won before the buses killed anyone, good job, by the way, we aren't returning to the past after this one, no damage was done before you stopped the attack, I've reported it to Elazul and he's documented it in the archives. I want all of you to get to the tower we just deactivated, Aelita found something."

Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi all run as fast as they can go to the tower Aelita and Jeremie are waiting inside, just as they arrive Otritzi fades into view beside the tower and steps into it. The three friends follow shortly afterward.

* * *

(Otritzi) 

Otritzi sees Jeremie and Aelita sitting beside one another on the edge of the platform, looking at a screen floating a few feet away from them. Odd, Ulrich and Yumi all appear behind him inside of the tower and he moves his wings out of the way to let the three of them past him so that they can see what Jeremie and Aelita are looking at. Otritzi speaks up first.

"So, what are we looking at you two?"

Jeremie looks back at Otritzi and says one sentence.

"The source code XANA uses to launch his attacks."

Otritzi and the others all look at the little window with a bunch of ones and zeros scrolling through it repeatedly. Otritzi finds his voice next.

"And what's preventing you from destroying it?"

Jeremie sighs and stands up, stepping away from the edge of the platform.

"It's protected by a firewall that only XANA can get past. That, and when it's deleted the tower activates, and glows red."

Aelita stands up and steps away from the edge of the platform, turning to Otritzi.

"There's another piece of code over there that activates the tower differently."

Aelita indicates a piece of code floating only inches out of Otritzi's reach if he stood on the edge of the platform.

"That piece of code allows me to activate a tower and affect the real world, I never knew about these two bits of code until Jeremie saw them and used his secondary skill, Examination, on them, that skill allows him to decipher and identify any bits of loose data floating around. Jeremie also spotted the source code for several of XANA's monsters, some I hadn't ever seen before, like this one."

Aelita reaches out her hand and a screen forms in front of her, she moves around several pieces of data and brings up a window with a picture of an orb with the XANA eye on it with several tentacles extending downward from the base of the monster.

"This critter's known as the Void Crawler, getting absorbed by one of these is like falling into the virtual sea beneath the regions, it virtualizes you permanently, Jeremie and I are working on a program to counteract that effect but it's going to take some time, if it all works out right I may be able to visit your world and meet my ACA counterpart face to face."

Aelita grins broadly toward her friends. She knew her fate was tied to Lyoko, just as all of the other keepers did. Not all of them were the same as this one though, many of the other keepers were skilled fighters, I'd seen one or two of them in the Canadian Lyoko Systems...the first systems group Otritzi hacked into from the Smith Center Lyoko System, he had been working on a way to use the Lyoko Systems as a way to transport himself to other Lyoko Complexes, but he hadn't had much luck.

Otritzi says his goodbyes and walks out of the tower, activating his return program, disappearing from AelitaR's screens and reappearing at in the Smith Center Island region. He walks up to a young girl who is leaning against what looks like a palm tree. Her skin is a dark tan color and her hair is an electric blue. He sits down beside her and sighs, she opens her eyes and looks at him.

"What's the problem, Otritzi?"

Otritzi looks down at her and smiles.

"Nothings wrong, Maggie. The Kadic Lyoko Defenders, you know...the newbies I was telling you about before I had to run, just found the bit of code that XANA deletes to activate the towers."

* * *

(AelitaR) 

AelitaR enters several commands into the system and Jeremie, Odd, Ulrich and Yumi are all rematerialized in the scanner room and the head back to school, they hadn't really missed any classes, but Odd needed to get back and feed Kiwi. AelitaR watched as Odd, Ulrich and Yumi all left. A noise comes from behind her and she turns around to see Jeremie head into the lounge of the Kadic Lyoko Complex. She enters the room and sat down beside him.

"Jeremie, why aren't you going back with the others?"

Jeremie looks over to AelitaR and smiles faintly.

"I wanted to stay and work on expanding your range, I also wanted to do a little more research on the Lyoko Systems and how they were made. Not to mention work on a contingency plan incase one or two of us get captured by the Void Crawlers or fall into the Void ourselves. We need to create a working Materialization program."

AelitaR admires Jeremie for his work ethic but knows it's not safe for a human to work so hard. While Jeremie is sitting in the lab working on his research Aelita goes into the Lounge and opens out the couch into a bed for when Jeremie finally falls asleep. She goes back into the Holo-Projector room and sees Jeremie leaning back in the chair at the terminal, scanning the screen, his eyes shining with understanding at what he's looking at.

End Chapter 5


	6. Side Chapter 1: The Wayward Defender

Author's note: This chapter is going to be all in one POV, Elazul's, and is set in the past.

* * *

Side Chapter 1: The Wayward Defender 

:Elazul, reflective:

I was sitting at home, beside my computer. I think I was playing Makai Kingdom: Chronicles of the Sacred Tome. I heard a message alert come from my computer. I turned rather quickly to see a message I thought would never come, I figured he'd died or something fighting XANA, especially since Maggie could easily take care of herself. I had been taking excellent care of my core, just a relic of the four times I visited the Smith Center Lyoko System...but of course I didn't have much of a choice, you see, this core, a Lapis Lazuli that's imbedded into my body just below my throat contains all of my life force, if it gets damaged I get really sick.

I never knew basing myself off a character from a game that Otritzi and I had played as teens would prove to be such a bad idea. It was cool at first, I could take shots everywhere else on my body and not get actual damage unless they hit one specific spot on my body, I became their shield...I always wondered how Otritzi came up with his persona...I never would have thought he'd have a thing for the pyrotechnics...but I'm rambling again, I'll get back to the story.

* * *

The message read something along the lines of needing me to come back and help him protect Lyoko...he had found a seriously amazing program that allowed him to go to other Lyoko Systems. I was skeptical at first, but I decided to visit the old haunt anyway, just for nostalgia's sake. I'd been having to relive days more frequently anyway and I was wondering why. I arrived at the old lake railroad bridge and found the door open and Maggie's ACA standing in the elevator, still as beautiful as the day I met her two years ago. 

She looked like she'd had a few upgrades though. I could tell she was more combat ready, she not only had a sword strapped to her waist but also an energy cannon hanging on her back that I can only guess Otritzi made in Lyoko and materialized for her. Otritzi and Maggie had been searching for a way for Otritzi to be able to use the Lyoko Systems to travel between Lyoko Complexes...I guess I should have seen what was coming a mile away.

As I rode down the elevator with Maggie she told me of some of the stuff that Otritzi and Maggie had prevented and seen. Including two instances where Otritzi was unable to be devirtualized but had survived in Lyoko until the situation was remedied, that little bit of news surprised the heck out of me...he usually got himself devirtualized so fast, I guess he'd found a way to pick up the slack while I was away, maybe he modified his character profile to include a way to create barriers or something. As the elevator came to a stop and opened up to reveal the Holo-projector room of the Smith Center Lyoko Complex I saw him for the first time in almost a year and a half. He was standing there next to the terminal with a teenage girl with red hair that had blonde streaks in it.

Otritzi looked up from his little discussion with the girl and saw that I was there. I guessed he sent me the message so he could introduce his little friend...maybe not though, cause the next thing I heard from his mouth scared me completely.

"I found a way to travel between Lyoko Systems." The moment he said that my jaw fell wide open. "I've gotten in contact with a group in France, they're working alongside THE Aelita, the one that's supposed to be capable of controlling all of Lyoko." If it was possible, my jaw dropped even farther. "Part of the reason I called you here was because I need your help now more than ever, XANA's pissed at me and has started activating multiple towers at once, most of the time on different systems...I need you to take some of them, even I can't be everywhere at once." At this I realized my mouth was open and snapped it shut. "By the way, this is Alexis, she saw me come down here last night and I was planning on having her help out in Lyoko. You're just in time to help me create her character card, Elazul."

How he can say stuff like that and not act like it's a big deal baffles me, I swear, nothing ever seems to phase this guy. I bet he's even found a way around that two hour time limit between virtualizations.

"Unfortunately, I haven't been able to figure out how to get to the other Lyoko Complexes yet. The Kadic group's working on Materialization programs just in case we run into one of XANA's new monsters called a Void Crawler...It's supposed to be capable of trapping people inside of Lyoko, much like the Digital Void does."

Otritzi had never surprised me so much as he did that day, here he was, a guy who rarely asked for help on Lyoko, was accepting help from a group of complete strangers...calling me back into the fold, even after our falling out, and even inviting this teenage girl to help him with Lyoko...XANA must really have had him backed into a corner.

The three of us set up Alexis' card, and even assigned her the call sign 'Mysti', as well as recorded her cell phone number into the supercalculator's database. Her appearance in Lyoko reminded me of Sango, from the anime Inuyasha, except her hair was a bright fire red and she didn't use a Hirakotsu, instead she used giant throwing stars that acted like boomerangs and Kunai knives and had a special ability, Freeze Frame, that allowed her to move at almost the speed of light, slowing time to a crawl for her without hindering her.

After we finished creating the profile we headed down to the Scanner room to go into Lyoko, there was still a few empty scanners in our complex, four empty scanners with the inclusion of myself and Mysti to the normal team of one that had been so routine for Otritzi. We heard Maggie's voice calling out her commands.

"Profile: Mysti, Transfer: Otritzi, Transfer: Elazul...Scanner...Virtualization!"

* * *

The three of us dropped from about ten feet in the air into the Smith Center Aquas Region. I'd have to say it was one of my favorite regions, there was no void, you swam through the place and avoided the currents, the only real enemies you had were the Mantas...and they couldn't fire on you very easily, especially when the place tended to counter XANA's usual laser based weaponry, the Mantas had to launch little suicide bombers to attack us for the most part, and those weren't that hard to dodge, even if they were homing shots. 

Looking at myself I remembered so much about my current form, how cool I thought he had been, how powerful he was in the game I got him from, and most importantly, I remembered his damn weakness, this little gem that sits below my throat, how I hate it...it has its bonuses...but they come at a heavy price...I can't remove it or I'll die. I'm a Jumi, it sucks ass!

Mysti floundered a bit while she realized that she didn't need to breathe to survive in Lyoko, odd...that was Otritzi and my own reaction our first time there as well. Maggie swam up to us a few seconds later, she had four Mantas tailing her, even though they weren't firing. I drew my sword from it's holster and launched myself toward Maggie's pursuers. A few seconds later I had sliced through two of them and Otritzi had boiled one of them, causing it to explode. Mysti used her power a few seconds later as she vanished and reappeared floating easily next to Maggie with a Kunai in her left hand as the last Manta thrashed in the water for a second before exploding.

"Very good, Mysti, it took Otritzi a while to figure out how to kill them when he first came here."

Mysti merely growled at that comment. She hadn't killed it in one hit she told me later, she'd hacked away at it for most of the time her power had been active. The three of us swam toward the tower floating in the distance, it took us the better part of twenty minutes to swim there. Mysti complained a bit, saying that she was tired of swimming. Maggie chuckled at Mysti's comment and swam into the tower, the three of us followed her in, watching her float up to the upper platform.

Otritzi pointed out several bits of code that floated on the walls of the tower and what they did. I didn't pay too much attention to what he said though, I was too busy examining the new girl. We watched in silence as the screens began falling to the bottom of the tower and a bright white light expanded from the bottom of the tower, engulfing us as time was rewound to the point where XANA's attack began.

End Side Chapter 1


	7. The Demon's Pride

Author's Note: Back to the main story, XANA's POV this time.

* * *

Chapter 6: The Demon's Pride 

:XANA:

I growl to myself, all of my efforts to punish Otritzi for telling the newbies more than they should know failed. How was he that skilled? Two solid weeks of attacks and not a single success. Surely Otritzi had to be feeling fatigue. So why was he in Lyoko so much? The Kadic Defenders don't worry me, they don't even know the extent of the damage I could cause, but they are fairly efficient for humans...I may have underestimated them.

The little cat lady that is in the Kadic Defenders, I think her designation is Odd, there was something about her that makes me uneasy, not an easy feat for a human to do. I knew the Virtualization System was unhackable, it was something the Lyoko Keepers did, soon after I was originally robbed of my human form and body in Lyoko. I had always wondered how they took that particular file and made it a part of them. Since I can't come out of Lyoko...but I can go to every Lyoko System in the world. It still made me pissed that I couldn't take care of the thorn in my side that was the Defenders, without their influence I could easily capture and download all the files inside of a Keeper...specifically, Aelita.

A sudden thought came to me, if I were to find a way to isolate the Kadic System from every other system out there...no, impossible...the other Keepers would stop me the moment I did it, as isolated as they were they would communicate with her...not to mention Otritzi would find the firewall and force his way through it, he did every time I tried to block him from a location, how he does it I'll never know.

As much as I hate him, his power in Lyoko is astounding, I quickly had to respect him, no matter how little I wanted to. I sometimes wondered if he was an AI, he was inside of Lyoko almost constantly after all, but I know he was a human from Earth before becoming a Defender, I had devirtualized him and he came back two hours later, just how long the program takes to restart itself. I could not figure out how someone could start off with that much power, it had taken me almost a year after I fell into the void to even make my first Kankrelet, and at the time I had to be inside of it for it to stay alive, and it took me over a week to reform after they killed me, I hated it, and them for forcing me to experience it.

A being such as myself that had a taste of humanity, then had it ripped away by those damn Defenders was considered evil, yeah...whatever...I just want to be human again, is that too much to ask? Although I guess with how these Defenders work it may not be long...I gain power every time they use that time reversal function...maybe I'll eventually get enough power to recreate my human body here in Lyoko...I guess I'd be satisfied with that for a time.

I guess it's time to activate another tower, I can't let these fools rest for too long, they might find a way to delete me...and then I'd never be human again.

* * *

Author's Note: Sorry the chap's so short...I hope this little enlightenment about XANA's inner thoughts shed some light on the past of my XANA. 


	8. New Thoughts Arise

A/N: Thank you to my reviewers for the encouragement. This chapter's back with Jeremie and friends, almost a month after the last chapter with them. First person perspectives this time.

* * *

Chapter 7: New Thoughts Arise. 

:Odd:

I woke up to the sound of an engine coming from the roof of the school. I roll out of bed and shake Yumi, waking her up, she wears earplugs to bed, I guess I must snore really loud or something. I quickly run up to the roof, half dragging Yumi behind me. Powers or not, the source of this sound can't be good. I knock the door to the roof open and step out to see a weird machine sitting on the roof. I can plainly see the XANA eye sitting in the center of what could be labeled as the humanoid machine's chest plate.

I quickly unleash my claws and dodge to the side, Yumi jumps backward as an energy bolt flies down and explodes where I was standing. Both of us run to opposite sides of the roof, Yumi summoning a pipe from a nearby wall with her telekinesis. I bend down and whip my cell phone out and send a text message to Jeremie.

"SOS XANA

CALL OT-

O-."

I hope he gets the meaning of that message. I dodge to the side as another blast of energy is sent my way, Yumi dashes forward and stabs one end of her pipe through the mechanized monster's chest, it sticks out of the XANA symbol and then a few seconds later a huge white light comes from the opposite direction of the KLC, I guess Otritzi already knew about it.

* * *

:Jeremie: 

I wake up in the middle class during the previous day, I thought I just went to bed. XANA must have attacked one of the other facilities...he seems to want to drive us insane by never letting us sleep. Oh well, Otritzi's never too far from Lyoko, it's amazing how effective he is, I wonder how he's so powerful, I'll have to ask him sometime.

I open up my laptop and surf through a couple files from Lyoko that Aelita had allowed me to take with me, one of which allowed me to send messages to Otritzi. I reported that we were attacked...but he would have to get the details from Odd, she had sent me a text message to call him just before the light engulfed us. I suppose I should go to the factory to check it out after class.

The bell goes off and I walk out, followed by Odd and Yumi. We probably looked strange with how purposed our walking was, we headed straight into the park and we went down into the sewer. From there Odd unleashed her kitty side, growing her claws out and taking off through the sewer at speeds a normal human couldn't possibly keep up with, but who said we were normal? Yumi focuses a little bit then lifts into the air, flying down the tunnels at speeds nearly matching Odd's. I grab a nearby skate board and took off after them, I'd become quite adept at using one since I had my scooter stolen. Ulrich dashed through the tunnel on the water, running right past me.

After every RTP trip we go to the factory and report in to Aelita and Otritzi, it's a procedure that Otritzi instated so that we could keep track of XANA's attacks. Not to mention that after we RTP, we go in and allow Aelita to check us for problems, like our powers changing. We can only wonder how many trips Otritzi has been through...how many hours of battle he has endured...how many times he was 'killed' in Lyoko...the frustrations he must have lived through when he had to fight through armies of XANA's creatures. Despite how much we fear it...it is something that we will experience eventually.

Otritzi told us something a few days ago. He said he died the day he found Lyoko. He said he died and was reborn...we can't help but think the same thing is happening to us. It is getting harder and harder to keep going back to school. Odd's already declared that she is willing to spend the rest of her life as a Defender...Ulrich and Yumi aren't decided on that...but they continue to keep themselves active in the fight to contain XANA. Me? I'm just a kid who can turn invisible at the drop of a hat...I might be able to live in the real world...but I can't get Aelita out of my mind. I don't want to abandon her, ever. There's so much about Lyoko I don't know yet...I cannot think of what my life would be like without it.

I arrive at the KLC and climb up the ladder and enter the 'factory' entrance, swinging down a rope and entering the elevator, riding down to the Holo-projector Room. There stands AelitaR, the robotic counterpart of the girl I have sworn my life to. Reporting in to her I then go on down to the Scanner Room where she activates the bio-scan program to check for new developments. Odd's claws have become sharper, Ulrich's become faster, Yumi's mind is stronger, I can become invisible for longer periods now, All these subtle changes and we still only have one hundred life points in Lyoko, Otritzi told us at one point that he's got four hundred life points, we wondered how the heck that was possible, he just told us that time does wonders and left it at that.

I step out of the scanner and go back into the elevator. I go up and talk to AelitaR again.

"So, Milady, have any new developments arisen from this latest return trip?"

"No, nothing other than the usual strengthening of your powers. You should be able to stay invisible for almost half an hour now Jeremie."

"Odd went into Lyoko again, didn't she."

"Yes, she is in the Kadic Polar Region, and appears to be enjoying the Ice Caverns quite a bit."

"I think I've found a way to boost the distance you can go from the factory."

"Really?" AelitaR speaks into the headset. "Odd, I'm going to be away from the screens for a bit, be careful."

Odd's voice echoes back through the headset loud enough for me to hear.

"Yes, Ma'am!"

AelitaR gets up and walks over to me. I lead her over to the workshop section of the complex and she removes most of her clothing, still wearing underwear. I pop myself on the head, I'm getting perverted thoughts about a machine.

AelitaR rolls onto her stomach and I walk over, tapping a panel on her back that doesn't even appear to be there at first glance. The panel depresses slightly and then opens out, revealing a complex set of wires and circuit boards. I look for the wire that leads to her head and attach a small device to the wire, splicing it into the circuit completely.

"How do you feel, Aelita?"

"Different...let's test it, shall we?" She says it so hopefully. I certainly hope she can experience sunlight. A sudden thought pops into my head.

'You'll never be able to have the real Aelita.'

I unconsciously answer that thought.

'This is the real Aelita, she can touch, feel, taste, smell, see. She's as much a human as we are, Yumi.'

Yumi walks into the workshop and sits down backwards in the chair, looking at me. Another thought echoes inside of my head.

'She doesn't have a mind, she cannot feel emotion, she is made up of circuits, wires, hydraulics, and computer chips. She is not the real Aelita.'

'And the one in Lyoko is? You know as well as I do that AelitaV is only a computer program, she cannot be brought into the real world.'

I notice AelitaR looking at me strangely after she finished dressing. I simply smile and turn to Yumi.

"She's talking in my head, Aelita."

AelitaR nods and the two of us head out to the entrance. AelitaR begins to get nervous as we near the doorway that she had never been able to cross before. I pull another device like the one I implanted into her 'spinal chord' and placed it next to the entrance of the KLC. The two of us take one step outside of the door, AelitaR doesn't shut down...I had done it...AelitaR could come with us back to school, I was ecstatic.

* * *

:Ulrich: 

I stood in the shadows, watching as Jeremie led AelitaR to the factory entrance and placed a strange box on the catwalk, just out of the way. I walked over to where Jeremie and Aelita were quietly, trying not to draw any attention to myself. Aelita takes one step out of the door and she doesn't shut down. I can see Jeremie beaming from back here.

I don't normally show my emotions...but that's only because my family is evil. Any time I'm at home I have to put up with being beat up by my older brother, my father, my mother...all of them like to torment me. I have been trying to find a way to get them to let me have a dorm at school, maybe I could get Jeremie to be my roommate. I would even put up with being roomed with Maximilian, the school nut job, it would be a massive improvement over where I currently reside.

I haven't told them about my home life, I would never tell them about my home life, they don't need to know. I think Lyoko's the only thing keeping me from killing myself right now. Lyoko and Yumi. My powers have allowed me to keep my mother and father happy, most of the time. My brother never seems to like that though, while my parents are out getting drunk, my brother torments me by tying me up and beating me with a rod. I wear baggy clothes for a reason, it is to keep them from knowing about my injuries. I wonder how much more of the hell I go through at home I can take before I pull a XANA and lock myself away in Lyoko forever.

Look at me, contemplating suicide...I guess what Otritzi said about Lyoko was true, you die the day you find it and are reborn as a new being, a savior...but what kind of savior cannot save himself? A martyr, that's what kind of savior cannot save himself. A thought echoes into my mind.

'I never knew your family treated you like that. I wouldn't blame you for "pulling a XANA."'

'Yumi, I thought I told you to warn me before you go poking around my skull.'

'I wasn't poking, you were broadcasting.'

I turn to Yumi, who is floating among the rafters, in a flash I dash up the wall and land next to Yumi and sit down beside her.

'I'm thinking about going into Lyoko and never coming out. I am beginning to think I know why Odd spends so much time in there.'

'She spends so much time in there so that she can attain the knowledge and perhaps become like Otritzi. You know she worships the guy.'

'True, but who wouldn't? He is insanely powerful, and has four hundred life points...I'm jealous of his skill.'

Yumi leans against my shoulder, wrapping an arm around me, using her Biofeedback power to heal the bruises, welts, and cuts on my back.

"I'm glad that Lyoko gave me Psionics. So many powers at my disposal...too bad it makes me so tired to use them so much."

I just smile slightly, wrapping my arms around her and holding her close to my chest. I realize just how important she is to me, I would march through hell to be with Yumi. Whatever her decision, I will follow her.

She obviously heard my thoughts, she smirks in her sleep and snuggles into my chest, causing me to blush furiously.

* * *

:Yumi: 

I was resting against Ulrich's chest when AelitaR and Jeremie returned with their arms loaded with grocery sacks, looks like AelitaR's range has really been extended, I'll have to ask Jeremie how he did it sometime. I hate not being able to really sleep. Ever since I first entered Lyoko, I've been unable to sleep...just too many voices inside my head at all hours of the day. The closest to sleep I could ever get was a trance-like state that mimicked sleep that was broken whenever somebody touched me.

For some reason however, Ulrich holding me lulled me into that trance state so quickly. With a tired voice I asked Ulrich a question that had been bothering me for some time.

"Why do you think Sissi wants to break our group apart? What have we ever done to her?"

Ulrich looks thoughtful for a while before hoisting me up into his lap and sliding back to the wall, leaning against it before answering.

"She doesn't know what we do every day. I'm sure if we showed her this, she would flip out and demand that this place be destroyed."

"You know, there's a director on his way here to shoot a monster movie at our home away from home. I caught wind of it while I was out for a walk through the halls last night. Jim, Sissi, and Mr. Delmas were all thinking about it, I think Sissi was dreaming about staring in it with you."

"Figures, I wish she'd just leave me alone."

Ulrich sighs and closes his eyes then rests his head against my shoulder after adjusting my position on his lap so that I'm laying on top of him.

"One or all of us will have to keep him away from the sensitive areas of this place. We cannot have all those people inside of our home without keeping an eye on them."

I look through the grating beside us to see AelitaR, Odd, and Jeremie looking for us.

"Looks like it's time to get back, wanna spend the night with Jeremie tonight?"

"I think I'd rather stay here, with you."

I blush at that comment, then I turn a darker shade when I realize what position we are in. I check our friends Psi signatures, too bad I can't get one on AelitaR. Odd and Jeremie walk out of the front door. The two of them thinking that we had already gone back. We decide to beat them back to the dorms so they don't worry about us.

Ulrich picks me up and uses his supersprint power to carry me back into mine and Odd's dorm before they arrive back. He lays me on my bed and then sits down beside me, I drift off into my mind scape within minutes while in his embrace. I reach out to Ulrich's mind and pull him in as well, the two of us lay there in each others arms, fully clothed. Inside of my mind scape however was a different story.

* * *

A/N: I'm not writing a lemon in this story, implied lemon, yes...lemon...no. 


	9. The Shifting

AN: For the last time, This is the main Code: Lyoko Universe, this is an ALTERNATE UNIVERSE, nothing you know about the characters of Code: Lyoko applies here. First person perspective again.

* * *

Chapter 8: The Shifting 

:Otritzi:

Here I stand, beside MaggieR and Mysti. Jeremie had e-mailed me the blueprints of a pair of devices that would allow a Lyoko ACA to leave the Lyoko Complex that they are attached to. Maggie had made them and had me attach it to her 'spinal chord'. I often wondered how someone so young could be so good with machines...I never was that good with them. MaggieR leans her head against my shoulder.

"Do you think we'll ever be free of XANA?"

"Aelita and the Kadic Defenders are working on that, I actually don't want my journeys in Lyoko to end."

Mysti chuckles a bit.

"After XANA's gone we may have to program in something for us to do then. I don't want to stop working with Lyoko, it is so enjoyable."

I smirk toward the teenage girl leaning against my arm.

"You checked in with your parents, right? They don't mind that your hanging out with a guy who's five years older than you?"

"As long as you don't do anything to me they won't care...besides I told them that there's another girl who lives where I'm staying for the night."

"Yes...well that is partially true...but really, since when are we human anymore?"

"Very good point there, Otri."

I chuckle at the nickname, and poke her in the ribs gently, she flinches away from my finger and glares at me.

"Oh come on, you left yourself wide open for that one, you even gave me a cue."

"I did not."

After she said that she tackled me, knocking me over and onto my back while MaggieR giggled at our little tussle, Mysti was extremely strong for a little girl. When I was finally gaining the upper hand she flipped off the ground and pinned me to the ground by sitting on my stomach.

"I thought you were a good fighter."

"I am, in Lyoko."

MaggieR suddenly jumps to her feet and rushes back inside of the SCLC. Mysti gets off me and uses her power, Flashdrive, to get down there first. I follow by running to the secret entrance and climbing down the ladder that is built into the wall of the elevator shaft. I arrive down there to see MaggieR and Mysti sitting at the terminal in the Holo-projector Room and MaggieR's looking completely spooked.

"XANA's hacked out an alternate virtualization program. He activated one of the towers in the Smith Center Island Region to make it the main program to all the systems...the Kadic group are all still inside of their Lyoko System, training."

"Tell them not to get devirtualized, we need to deactivate that tower ASAP!"

"Too late, XANA turned it off himself. Whatever his program does can't be removed now. I just hope that they are all fine."

"Whatever he did...Let's hope it's reversible...cause if it isn't...Lyoko may be unsafe for the rest of our time here."

"Message sent, I hope they don't get attacked too terribly much before we find a way to stop this."

"Send me to Lyoko, I'm going to make sure they are safe."

"I'm going too!"

I turn to Mysti, surprised she'd offer to risk what she's about to.

"You realize if you're killed in another Lyoko System you stay dead...don't you?"

"Don't matter, I'm sure Maggie will be able to recall me before that happens. If I get down to twenty health pull me out of there."

Maggie turns from the terminal and addresses us.

"You've got it, no get down there and into the scanners!"

The two of us dash into the elevator and ride down to the scanner room, racing into our scanners. Maggie's voice echoes down and we are virtualized into Lyoko.

Once inside I look at my hands, they aren't my normal hands, I've got a sword strapped to my waist and I look up to see my body standing a few feet away, in all it's glory.

"Maggie, something's wrong."

"You're telling me. Mysti, you are using Otritzi's card, be careful with your hands, they are your main weapon and when alight can deflect lasers. Otritzi, your powers don't work in Mysti's body, her sword can deflect lasers, in order to use her powers you have to say 'Flashdrive'."

Mysti looks at her new body's hands and sighs.

"Otritzi, how do you light your hands on fire?"

"I focus on my hands for a second."

The two of us nod and MaggieR activates the transport program, the two of us are whisked away and reappear beside a tower in the Kadic Forest region.

"AelitaR, where are Yumi, Odd, Ulrich and Jeremie?"

"They are south of your position, be careful...I'm reading a massive army of monsters between you and them. XANA's made a clone of Elazul, the four of our Defenders are attacking him but it's life points aren't going down."

'Shit, not a clone of Elazul...they'll never figure out how to kill him in time.'

"Let's go, we don't have time to waste! Flashdrive!"

* * *

:Mysti: 

Otritzi, who's in my body I might add, grabs my wrist and activates MY power. I'm pissed beyond belief, he's using my body like it's his own! The two of us appear in time to see the Elazul clone kick Odd to the ground. Otritzi yells and dashes forward, tackling X-Elazul to the ground and attempting to hold him there. I run over and help Odd up and she looks at me funny.

"Otritzi, what are you doing? You should be attacking him, not your little friend."

"I'm only Otritzi on the outside right now, XANA bugged the scanners and when we came to Lyoko it switched our bodies."

"Alright then, who are you?"

"My call sign is Mysti, get down!"

Odd dodges to the side right as X-Elazul's sword flies toward me, without thinking I bring my hand up and catch it by the blade in a burning hand. Moving without thinking again I turn and toss the sword over the edge. Otritzi had pulled out my sword and ran it through X-Elazul's core, destroying him in one shot. Otritzi sighs and stands up, looking to the Kadic Defenders.

"Sorry, we aren't ourselves at the moment. The body I'm using right now is normally Mysti's...I don't understand how...but XANA wrote a virtualization program and used a tower from the SC Lyoko System to make it the main program."

The cute boy with blond hair speaks up first. I mentally smack myself for thinking about that in a situation like this.

"That's not possible...XANA shouldn't have been able to affect the Keeper's programs. How did he manage to hack that one?"

Odd speaks up next.

"He may have just activated the tower to affect the base systems of Lyoko and set the roots to his program over the roots to the one the Keepers use...it's very possible...you said he activated a tower, right?"

I reply looking kinda confused by what Odd said.

"Yeah, he also deactivated it a few seconds later, we never had a chance to undo what he did."

"Then we can't, what's done is done."

"Maggie's going to recall us soon, you guys had better devirtualize for now, we'll get back in contact with you later."

I watch as the others fade to wireframes and then blink out of existence. A few seconds later Otritzi and I are brought back to SC Lyoko and devirtualized...I notice one little thing about the devirtualizaton, I'm not a girl anymore and Otritzi's not a guy anymore, but we have our bodies back. Maggie's voice floats down to us from above.

"Guys I figured out how to partially transfer you back...I couldn't change your genders back to normal...but I've fixed your characters to be adjusted to your new forms...Otritzi...I'm afraid I couldn't salvage your level. Until I find a way to get you back to normal you're using a level one character."

I hear Otritzi...or rather Otritza grumble a series of curses and walk into the elevator. I just know I'm going to have fun explaining this one to Mom and Dad. At least I didn't go in with Elazul.


	10. The Threat Outside

A/N: Sorry I haven't updated in so long, I've been at a loss for designing Otritza and Myst's Lyoko personas, I'll just leave them out for a few chapters...I'd like some suggestions from you guys on their weapons, appearances, and powers.

Nicknames:

Samurai Ulrich

Kitty Odd

Ninja Yumi

Sniper Jeremie

: denotes entering first person

( ) denotes entering attached third person

" " denotes speech

' ' denotes thoughts and telepathy

* * *

Chapter 9: The Threat Outside 

(Odd)

Odd yawns, classes have gotten boring since her introduction to Lyoko. She looks over her shoulder at Jeremie and blushes slightly when she catches him looking at her. She quickly turns back and faces the front of the class to hide her blush from Jeremie.

The bell rings and Odd, Yumi, and Jeremie all get up and walk out of the room together, only to be intercepted by Marco and Drake. Marco speaks first.

"Where do you guys go in that forest? The last time we followed you two into the place two of you vanished and one hopped up into the trees, then we were KO'd by blows to the back of the head."

Yumi looks him in the eyes and smirks, her eyes glowing faintly as she uses a telepathic suggestion on the two of them.

"Mind your own damn business, what we do is none of your concern."

Drake shivers.

"Shutting up now."

Drake and Marco both walk away very fast, heading toward the dorm building to catch a nap. Ulrich supersprints up to his friends, just sort of fading into view next to them to the naked eye. Odd turns and grins one of her more kitty-like grins.

"So, samurai, where are you and ninja going out tonight?"

"None of your business, kitty."

Odd scoffs toward Ulrich.

"Fine, I'll just hang out with sniper tonight, I like him better anyway."

Jeremie blushes when Odd says that, not realizing just how much Odd likes him.

"Princess is letting us have the night off from our normal training schedule while she, Otritzi and Maggie figure if we can go to Lyoko without suffering from what Otritzi and Mysti suffered from."

Sissi walks up to the group and asks one question.

"Where do you four always disappear to?"

Ulrich turns toward Sissi.

"What business is it of yours, Miss Delmas?

"I'd like to hang out with you four, my enforcers both ran off after I showed them something."

"Would you be willing to die protecting somebody."

"Depends who I'm protecting."

"The four of us are willing to die to protect another on a daily basis. We also keep a very dark secret."

"Will I have to know this secret to be a part of your group."

Yumi shakes her head.

"You don't want to know this secret and you don't know what it takes to be in this group."

Sissi looks slightly flustered.

"At least let me hang out with you guys for a few days, I've been getting threatening notes from somebody here at school. As far as I know, you four are the toughest group in school, please let me hang out with you tomorrow."

Yumi sighs, then telepathically tells us something.

'She's not lying on the notes, and as far as I can tell, she's scared shit-less about whoever put it in her dorm room. According to her memory, the note says something about enjoying her life while it lasts, I'm guessing some guy's out to kill her or something.'

Odd closes her eyes and then steps forward, wrapping her left arm around Sissi's shoulders.

"Don't worry, you're safe with us. I would like to see the notes though, might help us figure out who's doing this."

* * *

:Sissi: 

I can't believe they are letting me hang out with them. I hope that whoever my stalker is doesn't mess with me tonight, although I am expecting to find another one of those evil notes in my room tonight. I think I'll start hanging out with them more, this group seems loyal enough to one another.

I watch as the four of them walk off towards their usual bench, I quickly follow, not wanting to be vulnerable. My usual lackeys all laughed and walked off when I showed them the notes, they all said something along the lines of glad it's you and not us. Yumi bristles slightly at my presence, even though she's not looking at me.

"Alright, one thing you have to know if you're going to hang out with us, please do not wear pink, it doesn't look that good on you, maybe some red or purple, but not pink. Agreed?"

I jump at the voice, it sounds like Yumi's voice, but it's not coming from her, it sounds like it's echoing in my head. I try to say something to Yumi but no sound comes out of my mouth. Yumi turns and smiles at me. Again her voice echoes in my head, but the others don't seem to notice her saying anything and her lips aren't moving.

"I'm telepathic, before you ask, the rest of my friends know as well. Kitty, samurai, and sniper all told me to let you in on our powers, seeing how you're going to be hanging out with us for quite some time. I'm referred to as ninja, we may eventually let you in on our big secret, but for now that's all you need to know, we need to run adding you to the group by our fifth member before we can let you in on the secret, you **_MUST_** never divulge this secret to anyone, period."

I nod without thinking about exactly what kind of promise I'm making. Yumi must not have been lying about being telepathic, cause her voice echoes through my head again.

"Think about it thoroughly, once you become a member of this group, you cannot leave, the vow to join this group is not to be taken lightly."

I think about everything she's rolled into my head...my only question won't be answered until tomorrow I guess. I turn and sit down on the edge of the bench beside Yumi, my face buried in my hands as I recite a silent prayer for guidance, obviously Yumi heard my thoughts again cause she wrapped her arm around me, pulling me against her in a very sisterly gesture.

"Take your time, it's safe for now."

Yumi must have said that with her normal voice, cause it came from behind me and was so quiet I almost didn't hear it. Out of the corner of my eye I see Herb looking slightly angry as Yumi holds me against her side protectively. I notice Odd up in the tree behind the bench, she looks almost asleep. I see Jeremie typing away on his laptop under the tree Odd's sitting in, maybe he's talking with this mysterious fifth person. My cell phone goes off, indicating a text message.

U DIE

2MORROW

X-

I shiver again, Yumi looks at my cell and the whole group moves to see the message, whoever this X- is I don't want to meet him.

* * *

:Ulrich: 

My friends and I have decided to protect Sissi, we even decided to let her in on our secret, she'll be hanging out with us so much for the next few days, we may as well...I mean we might even have to bring her to the KLC during our training sessions and missions, oh well...as long as she doesn't tell anyone about Lyoko after we introduce her to it.

We have to tell her of a few of the attacks that have happened, oh she's going to flip when I tell her about how Sniper kissed her on the lips last week, and right before a RTP as well, oh that'll be priceless. I can also say that I'd like to see her reaction when she hears about Otritzi and Mysti as well, that'll be hilarious.

I see Drake and Marco come out of the dorm building looking severely pissed, this is a perfect time to stop a rampage before it can get off the ground, I nudge Ninja and indicate the terrible twosome that are rampaging their way towards us. Ninja smirks and gives me the go ahead to stop the rampage. I activate my Supersprint power, slowing everything around me to a crawl.

I run over to where Drake and Marco are and set a pair of skateboards about where they will step next, then run back over to the group, retaking my seat as I return to normal speed, watching as Drake and Marco slip onto their backs and crack their heads on the dirt, even Sissi chuckles at it, looking at me.

"How did you do that? I didn't even notice you moved."

I lean back on the bench smirking to myself.

"I'll tell you tomorrow, after we get the OK from our friend to allow you into the group, if you still want in that is."

I notice Sissi shiver under Ninja's arm, she's scared again...I don't know why anyone would want to kill Sissi...but that message was right, she's going to die tomorrow and be reborn as a Defender, just like Kitty, Ninja, Sniper, Otritzi, Mysti, Elazul and myself. Kitty, sniper, ninja and Sissi all head off to the dorms for the night as I walk home.

* * *

:Jeremie: 

I sent a message to Aelita about perhaps adding another member to our group last night, she accepted but made me promise that the new person will keep the secret of the 'old abandoned factory' by the river, even though it's not really abandoned anymore and was never a factory. The four of us often wondered what Sissi would do if she had powers like us, although we never knew if she was trustworthy enough...I guess we find out today.

The four of us, plus Sissi, meet in the cafeteria for breakfast, since it's Saturday we all head for the manhole in the forest. Yumi made sure we weren't followed again, I guess Drake and Marco's failed attempts at following us haven't taught them a lesson. I'd have to say it took guts on their part to attempt it in the first place, especially after Odd whooped the two of them by herself.

After we all climb down into the sewer I pick up one of the skateboards and toss a second one over to Sissi. Yumi, Odd, and Ulrich all get stretch and get ready for their race through the sewers. Sissi and I take off on the skateboards. I'm surprised Sissi even knows how to ride one, she never came across as somebody who would be coordinated enough skateboard...but I guess there's things we'll never know about her.

Sissi and I arrive at the ladder up to the KLC only to see Odd as she jumped down from the top of the bridge and landed in front of me in a very cat-like pose. She stands up and clears her throat.

"Ahem. Alright, Sissi, welcome to the Kadic Lyoko Complex. The first rule of knowing about Lyoko is you don't talk about Lyoko, got it?"

Sissi raises an eyebrow at Odd's statement.

"Kinda like that American movie, Fight Club, right?"

Odd smirks at that.

"Yes, just like Fight Club. IF anyone finds out about this place aside from us we could be dealing with another enemy, not just XANA."

Sissi looks slightly pleased with herself at picking up on the reference, although when Odd says XANA's name she quickly loses the look of pride and gains one of confusion.

"Who's XANA?"

"Have Jeremie tell you, he can explain it better than the rest of us, seeing how he's the computer genius, and not me."

As the three of us walk into the KLC, Odd jumps down to the floor of the factory, landing in a cat-like crouch again then taking off for the lounge on all fours. I turn to see Sissi looking slightly confused.

"How does she do that?"

"What, the whole jump from a great height and land on her feet thing?"

"Yeah, that."

"You know how Ulrich's always calling her Kitty, right?"

"I've heard him call her that on occasion. What does that have to do with it?"

"It's a descriptive nickname. Odd's Lyoko form is a demi-human cat with the ability to fire arrows from her gloves."

"I see...what's your Lyoko form?"

"My nickname is Sniper, and my power's invisibility. You figure it out."

AelitaR walks up to us after we slide down the ropes to the lower level of the ground floor of the KLC.

* * *

:Sissi: 

A girl with pink hair, wearing a brown and pink overcoat that goes down to her knees walks up to me and smiles at me. Her voice sounds kinda nice, but a bit synthetic.

"Hello, my designation is Aelita. I'm an Automated Cybernetic Avatar, or ACA for short. I have a counterpart in Lyoko also named Aelita who is a Keeper. Jeremie and his friends are not just humans anymore, they are Defenders, as you will be soon. By the way, Jeremie XANA's virtualization program only allows us to virtualize one person at a time without side effects."

The girl said she was some kind of robot, I don't believe it, she looks and acts so human. I shake my head to clear my thoughts as I follow her to the elevator. Jeremie didn't come with me...I'm actually starting to feel a little scared, I don't know this Aelita very well...but the others seem so confident that she's not going to harm me...I guess I'll believe them, for now.

The door of the elevator opens up, revealing a massive computer terminal and with a projector built into the floor that has a hologram floating above it. My jaw drops open, this stuff is amazing...I've never seen anything like it before, it's amazing. I guess I wasn't paying attention cause Aelita poked me gently in the side before talking to me.

"I said welcome to the Holo-projector Room. This is where I spend most of my time. Come over here with me so I can put your basic information into the computer before you head down to the Scanner Room for your first trip to Lyoko."

I nod and follow her over to the terminal, she sits at the terminal and information begins flying across the screen at amazing speeds, I can't even follow it. She doesn't even touch the keyboard as a window opens up and an elvish face pops into it, the two of them converse for a while and then the window closes again. I turn my head to look at Aelita.

"Who was that?"

"That was my Virtual counterpart, the Keeper of the Kadic Lyoko System, Aelita. Everything's ready, get in the elevator and go down one floor, once there enter one of the big golden tubes and I'll transfer you into Lyoko. Once the doors close, don't move."

"Alright."

I walk over to the elevator and enter it, going down a floor to reach the Scanner Room, as Aelita called it. When the door opens I see eight pods set in two perfect lines with cables running from their base and top off into the shadows. I hear Aelita's voice come over what I guess is an intercom.

"Step into one of the pods and I'll transfer you to Lyoko, you'll undergo a minor transformation, it won't be much, you'll just get a power and your clothes will change, unless you're like Odd who became a cat-girl."

I step into the nearest pod and the door closes behind me. I freeze, listening to the machine boot up and I close my eyes as a bright light fills the pod. I hear Aelita's voice echo down, almost like it's in my mind.

"Profile, Sissi; Scanner, Sissi; Virtualization."

* * *

:AelitaV, Kadic Arctic Region: 

My ACA told me that I'd be meeting the new Defender today, I'm interested in meeting this girl they called Sissi, it'll be nice to have another person from Earth here. I watch as she's virtualized in the air above the glacier I'm standing on. She drops down and lands on her backside, I guess that always happens on the first trip. As Sissi stands up I see she's dressed in a flesh colored full body suit and a pair of deflection gloves, they allow her to deflect shots with greater accuracy than a sword. She looks at herself and growls when she sees her outfit.

"What the hell am I wearing?"

She obviously hasn't seen me yet, I decide to make my presence known.

"I don't know why you are dressed in that, but I don't know if the guys will be able to take their eyes off you."

I hear something land behind me. I turn around and see Elazul standing there, his core sparkling as it should, indicating that he's the real Elazul.

"Hello, Elazul. What's going on with Otritzi and Mysti?"

Elazul chuckles and sits down against a crag on the glacier.

"Otritza and Myst are working on getting their own bodies back, XANA's little Virtualization program was a one shot trick, he probably did it to make Otritza mad. By the way, who's the young lady behind you, Aelita?"

I turn my head to see that Sissi's now staring at Elazul, I guess she finds him attractive or something, her mouth is wide open. She recovers and introduces herself to Elazul.

"My name is Sissi, this is my first time here on Lyoko. Now, who the hell are you?"

Elazul only chuckles, stretches and stands up, addressing Sissi with a hint of amusement in his voice.

"My name is Elazul, I'm a Defender, like yourself. My power is called Lifecore, see this gem sitting below my throat? If that gets damaged I get devirtualized. If that gets damaged while I'm on Earth, I die. I could survive getting shot in the head, but if my core gets so much as a scratch on it, I lose consciousness. If it gets removed, my body will turn to dust."

Sissi only nods when she hears Elazul explaining his power, I guess it shocked her to hear him talking of such things so casually. My ACA called down from above us, waking Sissi from her stunned state.

"Incoming monsters, two Krabs."

* * *

:Elazul: 

I grumble a bit as I stand, preparing to do battle with the two Krabs that are headed our way. Sissi brings her hands up into a defensive posture, I'm guessing she thinks her only attack is deflecting the enemy's shots back at them with her gloves, I guess she hasn't noticed the spear on her back yet.

"Sissi, you've got a spear holstered to your back, use that instead of your hands."

Sissi reaches back and wraps her hand around the spear, pulling it in front of herself just in time to see the two Krabs plant their feet and start charging their tri beam gatling guns. I quickly draw my sword and hold it in front of my core, the only part of me that really needs protecting. I see Sissi holding her spear behind herself with one hand while her other hand is ready to deflect any lasers that head her way. I assume she doesn't know what her power is yet, otherwise she probably would have used it to get a preemptive strike, oh well.

The Krabs open fire, moving quickly I methodically deflect the shots aimed at me, chancing a glance at Sissi I see that she's not standing around to fight with the one aiming for her, she dashed off to one side, probably trying to confuse the thing, it unloaded it's shots at her and she deflected two of its shots back at it's symbol while dodging the laser fire, destroying it without attacking with her spear. I'm impressed, she may have what it takes to be a Defender already.

I deal with my Krab by jumping forward and landing on its top, stabbing my sword into the symbol, pulling it back out and then quickly jumping off while the Krab is stunned before it explodes. As I land on the ground I receive a message from Maggie, she's going to recall me in a few seconds, good. I bid my farewell to Sissi and then vanish from the Kadic Lyoko System.

* * *

:Sissi: 

I watch as Elazul fades out. I don't know how I did what I did, it was like my mind was on autopilot, it was amazing. I loved the rush I got as I dodged and deflected those lasers. I guess I was thinking at a very high speed, the lasers came toward me so much slower than I thought they would. That table-like monster didn't stand a chance against me, but it was strange, I was intimidated at first, but after I saw Elazul draw his sword I knew I could take them. I turn to address Aelita.

"Alright, that was easy, could you send in the others? I want to see their Lyoko forms."

One by one the others are virtualized and drop onto the glacier, all four of them landing on their feet. Ulrich appears first, he's dressed in a short yellow and black kimono and has a bandanna with a moon symbol on it. Odd drops in second, looking very cat-like, and wearing a pink belly shirt under a purple long sleeved vest and a pair of purple trousers that have a hole for her tail, she also has a pair of gloves that look like cat paws, complete with claws. Yumi drops in next, wearing a short kimono with several colors on it and a ribbon tied around her waist, she also looks like she's wearing a lot of makeup. Jeremie drops in last, wearing a blue body suit, not unlike the one I'm wearing, he also has a sniper rifle strapped to his back and a pair of Desert Eagles holstered around his waist, each gun with an extra clip attached to it's holster. I can now see why they each have their nicknames.

I watch as the others practice their moves, we even destroy more of the monsters, a few of the ones that they referred to as Kankrelets and several more Krabs, each time I was shot at it seemed like everything slowed down, I guess my ability is Danger Sense or something like that, cause any time the slowdown occurred I was being attacked. They showed me several different strategies and techniques for wiping out XANA's monsters. About four hours later AelitaR's voice comes down from above us.

"It's lunch time, I'm going to Devirtualize you one at a time to avoid any problems. AelitaV, you should probably head for a tower."

One by one the group's virtual bodies shatter away, Yumi, Odd, Ulrich, Jeremie then myself. I close my eyes for a second and when I reopen them I'm standing in an open Scanner with Odd, Yumi, and Jeremie looking at me. I hear Ulrich's voice from behind them.

"What do you think of Lyoko, Lancer?"

Odd reaches her hand forward and pulls me out of the scanner, practically dragging me to the elevator. The elevator carries us up to the main floor of the Kadic Lyoko Complex.

* * *

:Yumi: 

I float into the rafters, followed closely by Ulrich as he Supersprints up one of the support beams. A few seconds later the two of us are cuddling up to one another, watching the other members of our gang chill on the sofa in the lounge. I decide to strike up a conversation inside of Ulrich's head.

'I can't believe how quickly Sissi adapted to Lyoko.'

'She fought alongside Elazul after she was virtualized. I bet that he helped her.'

'I'm having trouble believing that she wiped a Krab with only deflections, that was really something to see, I'm glad Aelita sent us that visual of the fight.'

'We saw it, what's not to believe. I think she's trying to prove to herself and us that she's not weak. But, I can't help worry that she may become overzealous and get herself into trouble.'

'Elazul seems to think she will attain level 2 before we do. Something about being devirtualized in combat lowering our XP values or something, it all sounds like one big RPG unless you experience it firsthand.'

'We can use that one. Lyoko, a future RPG that the five of us are conceptualizing. Yeah, that'll be a good one to use if anyone ever comes at us asking what Lyoko is.'

We stop talking for a while over the mental link, I lean on Ulrich's shoulder and close my eyes.

"I'm tired, Kitty sleeps with music on all night, it kept me awake for most of the night. Let me sleep here."

"Sweet dreams, Ninja."

* * *

:Odd: 

I watch as Yumi falls asleep on Ulrich's shoulder, too cute to disturb. I climb down to the lower level of the ground floor and walk into the lounge to see Jeremie working on one of the terminals in the lounge. Sissi is sitting on the sofa with a can of soda in her hand, watching recordings of us fighting in Lyoko, which are quite amazing, really. I plop down on the sofa next to Sissi and lay my head back. I try to strike up a conversation with Sissi.

"You realize that we may occasionally call you Lancer, right."

"Ulrich already has started calling me Lancer. It's not really that much different than everyone in school calling me Sissi when my real name is Elizabeth Delmas."

I nod at that point.

"I personally think Lancer sounds better than Sissi. I can't believe how well you did on Lyoko for your first fight, that was amazing how you took on those five Kankrelets by yourself in close range combat and didn't take a single hit, it was almost like you could see their shots two seconds in advance."

Lancer smirks and leans forward, resting her elbows on her knees.

"Just between you and me, my Lyoko power is Danger Sense, it slows everything around me down as the shots come in, giving me plenty of time to plan my dodge or deflection. I'd have to say I like my power."

"It's better than Precognition that you can't control, some of these visions I get are a pain in the ass."

"Yeah, but you've got those cool kitty powers too. I'd have to say being a Defender is nice, but I wonder if I'll ever see the world the way I used to."

"You know, we often say that our old selves died the day we entered Lyoko and we were reborn as Defenders. We don't even think we're human anymore, just virtual beings given a real life, kinda like what Sniper wants to do with AelitaV, but he hasn't had much luck. If he does find a program that can materialize a being that is purely virtual, like AelitaV, we won't have to worry about the Void Crawlers anymore."

"I haven't seen a Void Crawler, what do they look like?"

"They are a shapeless mass with a XANA eye on the outside, if one absorbs you it's like getting thrown into the digital void below the regions. They're nasty critters."

"Sounds nasty. I don't want to meet one."

"We haven't met one yet, the only reason we know what they look like is cause Aelita found the blueprints for one in a tower and showed them to us."

There's a comfortable silence that fell between the two of us, we both focus back on watching the fight shown on the screen, it's one where Yumi takes on two Megatanks and gets them to destroy one another, a tactic we've all used on various monsters, it seems to work so well against the Megatank though, as they tend not to watch their fire.

I get up and walk over to the fridge, getting out a pair of sodas for myself and Lancer. As I walk back over to the sofa I toss one of them to her before plopping down beside her again. She looks over at me then smirks.

"Just how much of a cat are you?"

"I don't really mind water, touch my ears without permission and I'll rip your arm off at the shoulder, I don't really mind having my ears scratched, I've got four of them, the two on top of my head are hidden under my hair, and the two on the sides of my head don't actually hear anything, but you better ask permission before you even attempt to touch them."

"Sure, it's interesting how yours and Elazul's transformations were so much more involved than anyone else here."

"I can't tell you why we got what we did, I guess our luck was just out of it or something, cause I didn't ask to be turned into a half cat and Elazul didn't ask to be turned into a Jumi. I don't know if Otritzi asked to be turned into a Fire bird or not, but that's what he was before the Virtualization incident that turned him from a guy to a girl and made it so he couldn't use his normal character card until he gets his male body back."

Lancer raises an eyebrow at that last sentence. I reach over and pat her on the back.

"Don't worry about something like that happening with you, we know how to beat the system, we aren't about to make a mistake on that until we fix the problem."

Lancer nods and relaxes on the sofa.

"Hard to believe that I never found this place when I was a little kid, I used to play around here a couple years ago, it made a nice playground, as long as I was careful. I thought I had covered every inch of this place, only to find somewhere I never saw four years ago. It makes me wonder just how observant I was back then."

"It had nothing to do with your observation skills, entering Lyoko opens your eyes to this place, I can indicate where each hologram is that we passed through on our way into this room if you want."

Lancer just shakes her head, the amount of tech in this place is astonishing, I'll give her points for keeping her sanity so far. I love going to Lyoko, it drives me nuts to have to come down from the high that Lyoko gives me, now if only I could get music to play in Lyoko, I'd be a happy girl.

I look at Lancer when she turns the Screen off, then stands to stretch, I get a terribly catty idea. I grin at it, what fun I could have with Lancer, I've always been known around school as a nut and I like to live up to that title. I creep up behind her as she turns toward the fridge and slowly bring myself to my full height, just behind Lancer. I wrap my arms around her waist and put my chin on her shoulder, nuzzling her neck a bit, a small show of affection from my kitty self.

* * *

:Sissi: 

I feel Odd wrap her arms around my waist and nuzzle my neck with a purr. I grin a little and pat the top of her head gently with my hand in an almost petting motion, getting her purr to get louder. I've always been a cat person, I had four cats at my mother's house before she died in a drunk driving accident and I had to give them away cause there was a rule against having pets in the dorms of Kadic, the only other place I could live. Despite my dad being principle, we aren't rich, in fact...we barely scrape by working for Kadic Academy.

I suppose joining this group could be a good thing, they're loaded. This place must cost a fortune in upkeep, I guess the place is pretty well funded, even though nobody's supposed to be here. I guess whoever made Lyoko must be regretting the decision, financially anyway, probably morally too. I stop petting Odd for a second, realizing just how that probably looked to Jeremie and AelitaR. I feel myself turn a nice shade of scarlet before I decide to walk out of the room and get some fresh air.

I walk through the door of the Lounge and sit down against the wall, sighing heavily.

'That was embarrassing.'

I stiffen as Yumi's voice breaks into my thoughts.

'What was embarrassing? Petting Kitty? Feh, that's nothing, I've had to do that for hours on end to get her to go to sleep. I'm sure once she makes her move on Jeremie he'll be the main victim of her kitty attacks, like what she did to you.'

'Odd's done that to you too?'

'And Ulrich, both Aelitas and even once to Jeremie, although she pulled away before Jeremie got to react to it.'

'What does it mean when she does that?'

'Her cat half trusts you instinctually. I suppose the five of us are linked through Lyoko, but I've got it the worst of all of you, if any of you get hurt I feel it, not pleasant.'

'Hmm...impressive, now where the heck are you?'

'"Sleeping" on Ulrich's shoulder, I hope you're not too jealous about that.'

'You're lucky you have him. If you ever hurt him, I'll be there to pick up the pieces, but still, don't hurt him.'

'I wouldn't dream of it, he is, after all, one of the few people I would trust with my life, why betray that?'

'Good point, I hope I can find a guy like him somewhere. I personally thought Elazul was kinda cute, but I doubt I'll ever see him in real life.'

'You did see what he looks like though, that's fairly close, just change the clothes and you've got Elazul as a human.'

'It's interesting, I never realized that I could have whole conversations without opening my mouth, I feel a lot better, thanks Ninja.'

'Your welcome.'

Yumi's voice fades from my mind and I smile, I turn my head a little to the side to see Odd prowling up on all fours again. I turn just in time to get tackled to the ground by the purring Odd. Suddenly I stiffen underneath Odd's warm embrace. I felt it, something's coming. I turn my head to the side a bit and see a figure standing at the entrance to the factory. I whisper into Odd's ear that we've got a visitor and she picks me up with ease and brings me back inside the lounge, assuring me that we'll be safe inside of there.

* * *

:Intruder: 

The last signal I got from that transponder I had imbedded inside of that brat Sissi came from this factory. I don't know how, but the transponder has suddenly stopped working. I look around the lower areas of the factory, but I only see an empty factory below me. I sigh and mumble to myself.

"Looks like I won't be killing her today, I'll have to do it at school then, the boss won't be too happy 'bout that."

I turn and walk out of the factory, but I get the feeling I'm being watched...oh well, I guess I'm just paranoid right now, what with having my state of the art bio-tracker malfunction last night, then just this morning when the tracking beacon I had implanted into her during her last inoculations suddenly failing, it was like someone had already killed her or something. I just shrug, I won't get paid until her funeral happens. The strange feeling passes as I walk across the bridge leading back to town.

* * *

:Jeremie: 

I had used my Fade power to get a better handle on the situation, I learned that our intruder was the one who was out to kill Sissi, but the way the intruder talked it was like he was only the contracted killer for this, taking him out wouldn't end the death threats. I return to the others with news that our intruder has left the KLC and is currently on his way to the school to look for Sissi.

"Guy and gals, we have a situation, whoever that was had packed some serious tech. Sissi, do you have any rich enemies?"

"Only one, but her name doesn't start with an X, it's Janice from the 7th grade. I made fun of her clothes and she got mad and attacked me. Her parents are insanely rich, the girl is spoiled rotten, even worse than I acted while I was with Herb and Nicholas."

"Definitely our main suspect then, any other people who have threatened to or have attacked you before?"

"Not really, Milly and Tamiya may have threatened to hurt me, but would never do this. They prefer to try and humiliate me with their news stories."

"Alright, X is the killer. That's all we know. I vote we have Yumi crack our intruders mind tomorrow when he tries to kill her. Lancer, we are going to have to rely on your Danger Sense power to get us through this. The moment you feel the slowdown occur move get out of the way and indicate where the attack came from, I'm sure your power tells you by how you were able to dodge in Lyoko."

Odd butts into the conversation.

"True, but shouldn't we all keep our senses open for this killer, I'd think Yumi would know who it was before the rest of us, seeing as she can read the minds of those around her."

Everyone nods at this, four of us would have to go back to the school eventually, like it or not, it's where we live. The group all get ready to leave the KLC and back to the school.


	11. To Catch an Assassin

A/N: This story will not be updating as often, but it is by no means dead. I need help coming up with Otritza's Lyoko form and powers, as well as Myst's Lyoko form and powers. And now, back to the fic.

* * *

Chapter 10: To Catch an Assassin 

:Sissi:

I'm a member of the Defenders, I never knew that was what they called themselves. Aelita's got my phone number if she needs it. I just hope that my assassin attacks like he said he would. The four boarders in our group return to the dormitories just in time for curfew. I went to my dad with the information that someone wants to kill me, he's stepped up security in the dorms. Jim, the PE teacher and head of security here at Kadic, has assigned double the number of guards to the halls of the dormitories for the night. I'd feel safer if he'd let me bunk with Odd and Yumi like I asked him to.

I lie awake in my room, not the least bit tired, I must still be buzzing from Lyoko or something. The place is like a drug, I can't wait to go back. Maybe it changed my physiology more than I thought, cause normally by this time I'd be at least feeling fatigue. I wonder if the others ever lie awake at night and think about stuff like this. I haven't lived a very gratifying life. I don't really want to die tomorrow, but that's when the assassin will be attacking and unless I can use my Danger Sense to dodge his attacks I'm a dead girl.

I saw Janice with Herb and Nicholas today, the two of them went to her after they learned I was going to be killed. Gee, what kinda friends are they. Jeremie said he was going to work on a project at the KLC, I know he got away without a problem.

I hear a tapping on my window, looks like the girls came over to stay with me after all. I open the window and Odd climbs in, dressed in her usual outfit with her claws out from climbing on the walls outside. Yumi floats in using her Telekinesis and sits on my bed. The three of us had decided that we'd sleep in whatever room I was told to stay in.

I close the window behind Yumi and sit down underneath the sill. I'd have remained standing but the slowdown occurred as I was shutting the window. I look to the other two girls in the room.

"I just experienced a slowdown as I was shutting the window, the assassin is out there and he's watching my room."

Yumi grins and closes her eyes. She's going to do something about our little problem. I hear a loud scream come from outside followed by a couple of gunshots. I think X has been taken care of. I look at Yumi questioningly.

'What did you do?'

Yumi only smiles serenely at me.

'I telepathically startled him, the scream was him falling out of a tree and the shots were from him trying to shoot at whoever spoke to him. He's not on the school grounds anymore though. He ran after he fired those two shots.'

I nod, smirking slightly at the mental image of a trained assassin falling out of a tree. I go into my closet and come back out with two extra pillows and a couple extra blankets for the girls staying with me tonight. I decide to sleep on the floor with Odd. After all, Yumi told me she just meditates at night instead of sleeping. I curl up with Kitty and the two of us fall asleep shortly afterward.

* * *

:Yumi: 

I open my eyes after I hear Kitty's soft snoring. The two of them look so cute snuggled up like that. I find it kinda hard to disturb them. I open my mind up and look around the school, feeling all the sleeping presences around me. I watch a couple dreams here and there around the dorm. Hmm, who'd have thought Milly was a lesbian, oh well. Tamiya better be careful around her. I continue looking through the dreams of the girls on the floor, as well as watching the locations of the guards. Drake and Marco are plotting something to mess with us tomorrow, I might as well screw with them.

I open a direct link to Marco's mind and strike up a conversation with him.

'Won't work, Yumi knows about it already.'

'Where did that come from?'

'The room above you, I can hear you loud and clear.'

'I didn't know we had a telepath in school.'

'There's only one psion in the whole school, me.'

'What do you know about Ulrich and his friends.'

'I'm one of them. I'm not going to tell you which one though.'

'You've got to be Sissi, cause her room's directly above mine.'

'Sissi's having a sleep over, there's three girls in the room above you.'

'Since when does Sissi hang out with Ulrich and friends.'

'Since she brought the death threats to our attention.'

'And you believed her? You guys are so gullible.'

'They are real. We saw the contract killer come by our hideout. Jeremie heard him say his boss wouldn't like the delay when he couldn't find Sissi at our hideout.'

'Why the hell are you talking to me though?'

'Cause you're the only student awake in the whole dorm.'

'Drake's awake isn't he?'

'Actually you've been talking to a sleeping guy for the past hour and a half. By the way, you won't remember this conversation in the morning, nighty night.'

I use my Hypnosis Omega power to make him conk out. I go back to surfing dreams for the rest of the night. Hmm, Kitty's dreaming of Sniper again, I wonder when she'll work up the courage to ask him out. Oh, there's another interesting one, Sissi's dreaming of a male Odd, that's a new one.

* * *

:Sissi: 

I wake up wrapped in Kitty's warm embrace. I don't really want to move, it feels so nice, and her purring is so soothing. Almost makes me forget that there is an assassin after me, oh well. I gotta get up and take a shower. I hope Kitty doesn't mind.

I get up carefully, making sure not to wake Kitty. Yumi's not in the room, I guess she went to take her shower already. As I gather my clothes Yumi's voice breaks into my thoughts.

'I saw your dream last night, a male Odd, I wonder how she'd react to that. She does have a twin brother you know.'

'I didn't know she had a twin brother. But, I don't remember a dream like that last night, in fact, I rarely do remember my dreams...only my nightmares.'

'That's gotta stink. You better hurry down here if you want to avoid the morning rush.'

I quickly race down the stairs to the girls shower room and get into the shower stall next to the one Yumi's in. My power has yet to hit on anything so far this morning. The two of us enjoy a companionable silence while we shower and get ready. Odd comes runs in to take her shower as the first person in the morning rush, just in time to see the two of us getting ready to take off for breakfast. She catches up to us after we reach the cafeteria. The three of us sit down as Ulrich pops in to join us, he obviously hadn't eaten yet...I wonder why...oh well. That's for him and Yumi to know and me to find out.

Jeremie fades in next to the door, getting into the line and going through it very quickly, then joining us at the breakfast table. We've got class today, even though it's Sunday, Ulrich doesn't seem to care about it though, I guess he'd rather hang out with us than be at home.

Actually the classes we have today are more of a religious sort. Christian History, Theology, and also the school's chapel will be open. Kadic Academy is by no means a Christian school, but they offer all sorts of religious classes on Sunday. Yumi and Odd are in my Christian History class, Jeremie's in my Theology class and Ulrich spends most of his Sundays in the school chapel, I don't know why though. Yumi, Odd, and I are taking Christian History for a history credit. The main book we use for the class is the Bible though. The five of us are going to meet in the chapel to talk after Jeremie and I finish in our Theology class. The two of us are in that class because we thought it would be interesting.

On my way to Christian History I felt a brief slowdown, it lasted for half a second, I saw the Drake step around a corner and I dodged to the left so I didn't run into him. He must not have noticed me, cause he kept on walking. I chose to ignore him for now, I'd tell Jeremie about it later. For now I had to get to Christian History. I arrived in class, no slowdowns happened during class but Yumi and I had an interesting telepathic conversation, I never knew Milly was a lesbian, that kind of info makes me rethink my whole perspective on the little girl. Perhaps that's why she seems so affectionate towards her partner. Oh well, the world's full of surprises.

During class Yumi had some fun with the teacher, Mr. Crail, she interrupted him twice, answering his questions before he asked them. After class Kitty, Ninja and I walked over to the chapel where we met up with Ulrich and Jeremie, who spent a good part of their Sunday morning there, talking about stuff and coming up with strategies for Lyoko, as well as concepting Lyoko the game. At noon we all went back to the cafeteria for lunch, during lunch I had another slowdown near Drake, right before he could plow into me in the lunch line. After sitting down at the table I decide to tell Jeremie about the slowdowns near Drake.

"Sniper, I've been having some strange spikes in my Danger Sense power, and always near Drake."

Jeremie looks up from his laptop and sighs.

"Not surprising. I'm sure that if your power hadn't gone off you would have been hurt. Drake used to hurt me quite often when he ran into me in the halls."

I nod. Still it's unnerving to have someone out to kill me and have someone like Drake capable of messing with my power. After we finish eating Kitty, Ninja and Samurai all head out to the KLC to get in some training while Sniper and I go to our Theology class. On the way to class I feel a major slowdown and it's source is a knife coming at me from behind. I spin around and catch the knife by the blade with two fingers. I see the Janice standing there with a stunned look on her face as I hold the knife in my hand. Jeremie and I enter the classroom and I place the knife on the teacher's desk before I take my seat next to Jeremie.

The teacher comes into the classroom and sees me sitting next to Jeremie. She looks at me confusedly, probably wondering why I'm sitting beside Jeremie, after all I used to hate him before last Friday. After last Friday though, I guess my feelings have changed, cause he's now one of my closest friends. She looks down and sees the knife on her desk. Her eyes open wide and she looks up, just before she asks I answer in a matter-of-fact tone.

"I put it there. Someone threw it at me on my way here. I caught it and decided to turn it in."

The teacher just flicks her eyes to me and then plops down in her chair, staring up at the ceiling. I guess she's praying. She swiftly moves the knife into her desk drawer and closes it. She then stands up and goes about teaching the class. Jeremie only looks like he's halfway paying attention while I look out the window, half expecting to experience another spike in my abilities. I watch as this little red dot filters through the window and lands on the teacher's head. I look at Jeremie and whisper into his ear. He disappears from his chair, the teacher and the other students don't even notice that he's gone.

I start to feel a spike in my abilities as the dot moves from the teacher to me. Jeremie notices the movement and quickly exits the room to get a security guard to check the bushes outside, too bad I can now see him as he slips out of the door, I suppose my power lets me do that when it's active, oh well. I slide down in my chair quickly, slipping under my desk to avoid getting shot in the head. The window I was sitting next to shatters and a bullet implants itself into the far wall, miraculously missing everyone else in the room. The teacher calls down to security to alert them to a sniper attack on the her classroom. I sigh and stand up, the slowdown is gone. I look over my shoulder at Janice, who was only here because I was. She doesn't look shaken up at all. In fact she looks surprised that I was still alive. I only turn to her and smirk, mouthing one word to her, "Fool".

Jeremie reappears beside me and whispers to her.

"X has been captured. His real name was Xavier Crow, Janice's older brother who ran away. He was found with a rifle in his hands, unconscious. By who, noone knows."

I turn back to Jeremie and plant a light kiss on his cheek, making the boy flush. I then turn back to the front of the classroom and leans back, smiling serenely. Jeremie leans over to me again whispering in my ear.

"You know I've kissed you on the lips before, I was dared to do so by Ulrich."

I nod and don't look the least bit surprised by that little revelation. I just smiles that the attempts on my life were foiled. I inwardly wants to tell Ulrich off for that. Jeremie is Odd's target. I currently doesn't have one...but Elazul would be a nice guy for me. Too bad he's too old for me, or so the others say. I shrug inwardly, I'll get some guy, I'm in no hurry. Although Odd's twin brother sounds like an interesting choice to take as my boyfriend. I suppose I need to learn about him first though.

Class flies by, the sniper attack not really mattering that much to the class proceedings. After class ends Jeremie and I take off for the park, Jeremie fades out at the beginning of the woods and I jump up and grab hold of a low tree branch, racing along through the trees, letting my power guide my landings so I don't get hurt. I drop down next to the manhole as Jeremie fades in. The two of us lift the manhole cover and climb down into the sewer. I put the cover back in place and continue climbing downward. Sniper and I get on our skateboards and take off for the Kadic Lyoko Complex to join up with the others for a training session.

Sniper and I drop down to the floor of the factory section, walking into the Lounge to see if Kitty, Ninja and Samurai are in there. AelitaR greets us and tells us to head down to the Scanner room, Elazul wants to talk to us in Lyoko, the others are already inside Lyoko. Sniper and I take the elevator down and I enter the scanner first to get scanned into Lyoko. I hear the five words that have become oh-so-familiar.

"Transfer, Sissi; Scanner, Sissi; Virtualization"

A few seconds later I land on my feet in the Kadic Forest Region, and a second later Jeremie drops in beside me. Looking around I see Elazul, Ulrich, Odd and Yumi all sitting there talking. Elazul hears me land.

"Finally the two of you show up. I've come bearing bad news. Otritza and Myst cannot get onto Lyoko yet. The profile command doesn't work on them and their old profiles don't work for them. I hope we can get this problem solved before they are needed here again. We need access to the Kadic Core Region, do you have any way of opening it up?"

Jeremie answers Elazul's question.

"No, I'm afraid that I don't know how to access it. Do you Aelita?"

AelitaV shakes her head.

"I wish I did...but the only one who would know the password to access it would be XANA himself, seeing as he made the Core Regions."

Elazul thinks for a while, then he sighs.

"Maggie's gotta call me back, try to find a way to access the Kadic Core Region, I'll keep in touch."

Elazul fades out, being recalled by the Lyoko System Transfer Program. I lean back against a nearby tree that is rooted to the pathway we are standing on. Odd walks over to me and leans against the tree beside me. I reach up and absentmindedly scratch her behind her kitty ears, she must have given me consent because she just purrs instead of tearing my arm off like she said she does to those without permission. I wonder how she can feel it in here though, cause as far as I know, I only have three senses, danger, sight and hearing. Danger comes from my Lyoko power, that's all I know.

I notice a slight slowdown and move to push Odd out of the way, going with her, just in time for a huge blast to cut through the tree from behind it and miss us. I land on top of Odd, hands above her shoulders and she grins up at me. I launch from atop her and take off to the side, watching as the creature that fired the shot at us locks onto me. I yell out my only question.

"What is that thing?"

* * *

:Ulrich: 

I look at the thing that Sissi's distracting, it doesn't look like a Megatank, but if fired a Megatank shot. I suppose we could call it a Panzer, it looks a lot like a tank from Earth, except it doesn't have a turret. I can't see the XANA symbol anywhere on it right now. I suppose there's only one way to do this. I run towards the Panzer.

"Triangulate!"

I dash around it in a triangle, leaving two of my clones behind as well as a field of yellow energy to keep the Panzer from moving. It looks from one of me to another, but it's not focusing on the 'real' me. I watch it as it prepares to fire, looks like it's eye's in the front and only appears as it's about to shoot. It shatters one of my clones and I dash up and slide around to the front, slamming where it's eye was in my clone's vision with my sword. I quickly run back after not being able to pull my sword from the eye. The creature spins in place for a while then explodes. I dash up to it's remains and find my sword. I put my sword away and return to my team.

"I'd call it a Panzer, it looked like it was a tank from Earth, but without the turret. The eye appears when it fires, you have about six seconds to hit it in they eye."

* * *

:Sissi: 

I nod to what Ulrich said, the name fits. I feel another slowdown, this time from a laser. I quickly turn around and position my right glove in the path of the beam with my left glove beneath it, deflecting the shot into my other hand then back at the creature, nailing it in the eye.

"I'd call the thing I just killed a Roachster, it looked like a more aerodynamic Kankrelet. I wonder what brought about the change in XANA's creatures."

Yumi speaks up sounding slightly confused.

"He hasn't been activating any towers lately, it's strange, perhaps he was spending his time creating new monster types. Maybe he's got something better than the Scyphozoa now."

Right after she says that a pack of twenty Roachsters appear, they open fire on Yumi, my power kicks in and I move in front of Yumi and appear to spin my spear, perfectly deflecting each shot back at the one who fired it. AelitaR's voice echoes down from above.

"Activated tower in the Forest Region, Yumi WHY did you talk about the Scyphozoa in Lyoko?"

"Momentary lapse in judgement. I forgot that he gets angry when we mention it. Come on, let's go deactivate this tower. Get your game on people."

I watch as everyone else starts to follow the pulsations emanating from the ground. I watch them for a second then take off after the rest of the group, catching up to them easily then falling into formation with Kitty. The six of us dash toward the tower, several Wasp-like creatures fly down from nowhere and attack us with lasers, I notice that they look like slim downed and aerodynamic Hornets without the poison sprayer, I can only assume they are upgraded versions of the Hornet. I whip out my spear and stop, the Waspsters all take aim at me and my power kicks in again. I whip my spear in a complex pattern of circles so fast that not even Ulrich with his Supersprint activated could follow it. I stop moving my spear as the slowdown ends. I smirk as all of the Waspsters explode spectacularly.

The group reaches the tower as I catch up. The tower's got three Panzers, upwards of fifty Roachsters, and upwards of twenty Waspsters guarding it. I look to Jeremie.

"You take the Panzers, I can take everything else, I'm not tired yet."

Jeremie nods and fades, heading back a ways to a decent vantage point. I smirk and dash forward, spinning my spear in front of me. The Panzers reveal their eyes to begin charging for their shots but three loud bangs echo out over Lyoko and all three of them explode. My danger sense power goes into overdrive, the colors invert in my vision, taking advantage of the super slowdown I take off and begin hacking through them before they can even fire. Later I learn that I was moving so fast nobody else could see me until I came to stop next to the tower.

The colors in my vision revert and I spin and collapse against the tower with a smirk on my face, breathing heavily as all the monsters explode.

"That was tiring, effective, but tiring. I never thought I'd be an adrenaline junkie, I can't wait to do that again. A high like no other."

I cough roughly as the others nod and pick me up, carrying me through the tower's wall. The towers must heal us...because my body can move again. I watch as Aelita floats up to the upper level and she deactivates the tower. I watch as a bright white light comes from the base of the tower and engulfs us. I suppose this is my first return to the past trip...from what I heard about it, we'll be starting this day over.

* * *

:Sissi, Post RTP trip: 

I wake up in a cold sweat, that was one hell of a...wait a second...that was REAL! Lyoko, the Scyphozoa, all of it was real. Odd and Yumi wake up at the same time I do. Odd makes the first remark.

"Lyoko's a rush but the return trip bites ass, I can't wait to get back in there and fight more of those new monsters. Speaking of monsters, Sissi, you were unbelievable. How did you move that fast?"

I blink and look at Odd.

"Huh? I experienced an inversion of the colors around me and everything froze for a time, right after the Panzer's exploded, and then I ran to each target and sliced them with the head of my spear. It was an amazing experience, killing all those monsters before they knew what hit them, my power ROCKS!"

I shout the last part in my excitement, most likely waking half the dorm. Two of the security guards walk up to my dorm and knock on the door.

"Everything alright in there?"

"I'm fine, just had a nightmare, you can relax."

I listen as the guards walk away, as their footsteps fade I look at Yumi.

"What time is it?"

Yumi looks at her watch and grins.

"4:30 AM, Sunday, the day of your assassination attempts."

We went back in time, we really went back in time, wow. This is amazing. I hear Yumi's voice break into my thoughts.

'Yeah, it is amazing. But it loses its novelty after the sixth time. We don't always start them either. Otritzi's team does them more than we do. But then again Otritzi's team has access to more sectors than we do.'

I nod, Odd wraps her arms around me again and starts to purr. I appease her by scratching her ears again. Then I ask her something.

"We did this in Lyoko, but how did you feel me scratching your ears?"

"In Lyoko we have sensors that indicate pressure, with how you scratch my ears it fells good, even in Lyoko. But the limited senses I have in Lyoko don't do justice to the ecstacy I feel when you scratch my ears here on Earth, you've got to teach Jeremie how to do that."

I chuckle at that.

"You should maybe find out how his ear rubs feel before you ask me to give him lessons."

* * *

:Odd: 

I sigh at that, I'm afraid to find out how his ear rubs will feel. I glare at Yumi, who's looking rather smug.

'Stay out of my head when you don't have permission, Yumi.'

'I wasn't in your head til you projected my name, you're blushing.'

I sigh again and go to the window. Sissi pulls me down on top of her.

"The sniper is still out there. I had a slowdown when you stood up to go out the window."

"Damn, I forgot. Alright, we wait for 5:00 before we all head down and take our showers. To beat the morning rush. I really hate waking up in a cold sweat like that."

The three of us sit there, I lean on Lancer's shoulder and Ninja sits on the bed and amuses herself with watching the dreams of the other students.

"Girls, did you know Janice has a voodoo doll of Lancer that she sleeps with?"

"Hmm...she doesn't know what she's messing with. I'd like to take her on in a one-on-one fight. I bet I would win too."

"Yep, you would, Lancer. Your Danger Sense would allow you to dodge or block every punch, they'd be coming so much slower than those lasers you block in Lyoko."

Yumi pauses for a bit to think.

"Girls, would you like to take the guys shopping after we take care of Xavier?"

"Sounds good, but how are we going to get them to come with us?"

"Lancer and I can get Ulrich. We'll leave Sniper to you, Kitty."

I nod, then grin something reminiscent of a cat. Dawn comes and Yumi startles Xavier Crow long enough for us to leave our room and head down to take our showers. The three of us hanging out together unnerves the rest of the girls for some reason. I suppose it's just because of Sissi's old reputation. She's actually quite nice when her life, or the lives of the other students are on the line. The only person she wouldn't want to protect would be Janice, but that's for a reason, would you save the life of someone who wanted you dead?

The three of us step out of the showers and get dressed. Lancer, Ninja and I all head to our first class. Lancer told us all where the bullet meant for her had come from, now we are going to make that fool pay for messing with a Defender. Sissi's usual clothes have changed since last Friday, as have her interests in boys. She no longer cares if they are popular, only trustworthy.

Lyoko is such a heavy burden, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't help you carry it. I finally figured out why we were given these powers. These powers help us carry the weight of the world on a daily basis. Our eyes have been opened to Lyoko...occasionally I have a vision or two in the real world, but nothing too life changing, considering there's little danger in this world when XANA's not attacking us. Although I did tell the group when we were deciding to let Sissi in that I had seen her in one of my Lyoko visions. I had foreseen her character...I didn't tell them about her ability or weapons though. I have to say that seeing the future sucks, I want to find a way to turn it off outside of Lyoko. Lancer dodges Drake, and trips him this time, forcing the three of us to run to class so that he would get in trouble if he tried to attack us.

The three of us sit in our Christian History class and relax as the bell rings, listening to everything Mr. Crail has to say, even interrupting him a couple times, but this time it's all three of us in unison, making him quite flustered. I smirk down to him, I wasn't even doing that well in Christian History and I was still mocking him. There's several religious history classes given here, one for Islam, one for Judaism, one for Christianity, and several other of the bigger religions.

Dorm security was hiked up from one dorm watchman to a team of them after the first documented case of bullying that happened three years ago, the very year that we got several students from a public school that was known for bullying. Drake and Marco among them. Now, those two weren't the first bullies on campus, no we had some before them...but the cases went undocumented. They weren't even the first documented case.

Well, class is over and the three of us are headed to the chapel to plan out how to stop Xavier from shooting at Lancer, not that he'd be able to hit her when she can dodge bullets, and to get the guys to join us on a shopping trip after Lancer and Sniper's Theology class.

* * *

:Jeremie: 

I watch as the girls enter the room. Odd looks at me with a very cat-like gleam in her eyes. I shudder. I notice that Lancer and Yumi both look at Samurai with mischievous glints as well. I notice he tries to hide behind me. Odd walks up to me and takes my hand, pulling me with her to the side. I can only guess what the other two are doing to Ulrich as she pulls me into one of the rooms. Odd wraps her arms around me and purrs, not good.

"The girls and I want to drag you and Ulrich along on a shopping trip so we can get Lancer a new wardrobe, cause we can't stand her normal outfits. Would you be willing to come with us?"

Any guy in their right mind wouldn't say no to a girl like Odd...regardless how much he hates the idea. With her wrapped around me like this I don't really want to piss her off, she could slice me apart with her claws before I could even hope to escape. I nod, quite afraid for my health. She quickly turns her head to one side and kisses my cheek, it feels nice, the danger of the situation suddenly passes and Odd's embrace feels nice. I reach my hand up and she flinches her eyes closed before purring again as I start to scratch the area marked by her purple splotch, right between her kitty ears. I guess she likes it.

"Lancer was right, you are good at this. Have you ever had a cat before Jeremie?"

I chuckle at her question.

"Yeah, when I was five my parents got me a female kitten, a year and a half later that cat had kittens and we gave all but two of them away, two females, all three of those cats loved to rub on me and often purred when I would pick them up."

Odd nods on my shoulder, then releases me and lets me turn around, only to see her down in a kneeling position, I brace myself for what's coming. She pounces on me and if she had a tail it would be twitching in amusement right now. I catch her and don't fall over, remarkable when you consider she's heavier than I am, although you wouldn't be able to tell, her body is almost all muscle, regardless how much she eats. Her purring increases in volume she leans on my shoulder while wrapping her arms around me again.

* * *

:Ulrich: 

I knew I was in trouble the moment the girls came in. They both had the most evil of gleams in their eyes, I never stood a chance. The girls both dragged me into one of the nearby side rooms, a different one than Kitty had taken Sniper through. I look from one to the other, wondering what torture they had in store for me. I pale slightly as they both get the most evil of grins and rub their hands together. I feel sorry for Sniper, having to put up with something like this from Kitty. Oh how I wish they would just come out and say what they want. They both start talking at the same time and I quiver a little as their voices sound almost the same.

"You know, we were planning on going to the mall after Theology. And we would like you to come with us. Odd and Jeremie will be there as well."

I immediately realize what danger I'm in if I turn them down. I wouldn't be able to hit Lancer even if I wanted to, she's too fast and Yumi can disable me with her Telekinesis. My Supersprint power wouldn't do me any good cause Yumi's reading my mind, I can tell. I sigh and accept their terms, complete and total surrender of my evening to be with them at the mall, I just hope my parents don't find out or I'm dead meat, I'm not supposed to be out past five thirty in the evening on weekends. Yumi's telepathic voice breaks into my thoughts.

'Why is that?'

'Cause my parents are sadistic, that's why.'

'Really? Have they been hurting you lately?'

'Yeah, just last night when I came home from our Lyoko training session. I took off without telling them where I would be so I didn't have to do my huge amounts of chores in the usual insanely short amounts of time.'

Yumi and Lancer nod, again I have a feeling of dread wash over me. I know they are plotting something. Yumi walks forward and Sissi leaves the room. I begin to feel relieved, the danger's passed, I can relax. Yumi walks forward and wraps her arms around me in what would normally be a comforting manner, if it weren't for the bruises on my body.

'Tomorrow Sissi's going to see that you are moved to the dorms, and she'll try to get you as Jeremie's room mate. Odd, Jeremie and I are going to take you home and I'll screw with their minds. Jeremie's going to use his power to watch and see if they try to hurt you tonight. Odd and Lancer are going to be here covering for us. I was wondering why you had been flinching as when I hugged you lately.'

'It wasn't as bad for about a week after I got my Supersprint and Triplicate powers, cause they wouldn't watch me do the chores and I could use my powers to take care of the chores before they came to check on me. They were never pleased to see that I had completed the chores set before me. After that week, they began watching me to see how I did it, I haven't been able to use my powers at home since. By the way, you're hurting me right now.'

I feel Yumi nod and release me, the two of us walk out to meet up with the rest of the group. Sniper and Lancer both walk off to their Theology class and Yumi, Kitty, and I all head for where they apprehended the sniper last time. We knew he was going to take his shot in about twenty minutes.

I Supersprint from the chapel to the tree that our target is hiding in while pulling on a pair of black leather gloves. Odd dashes over and extends her claws, then bounds up a nearby tree and hides on the branch above our target, as well as hiding her claws and putting on her black gloves. Yumi uses her PSI Flash technique to stun the sniper before Odd drops down and takes the rifle from him, dropping it to me. I quickly empty the magazine from the rifle and clear the chamber, catching the bullet and pocketing the magazine before tossing it back up to Kitty, who points the rifle squarely in between his eyes before he recovers from the PSI Flash. Kitty smirks as he realizes he no longer has his gun. Kitty pushes the barrel of the gun against his head and forces him back against the trunk of the tree.

* * *

:Xavier: 

A bright flash blinds me for a few seconds. I blink and try to clear my vision without changing my aim. When I finally am able to see without spots in my eyes I see a girl standing over me with my rifle in her gloved hands. She shoves my head against the trunk of the tree, pinning me rather solidly.

"Now then, Xavier. Why were you aiming this sniper rifle at one of the classrooms in that building?"

I start sweating when she asks that question. This particular girl has a strange gleam in her eyes, almost like she wants to kill me.

"I am being paid by my little sister to kill Elizabeth Delmas. My parents disowned me and cut me off from the family fortune. She said she'd pay me half a million francs if I put a bullet through Miss Delmas' head."

The girl smirks and calls down from our position.

"You guys heard him, right?"

"Yeah, we heard him."

At that point she pulls away from me and sits on the branch, letting the rifle rest on her shoulder as she hops back. I look down to see two kids, a boy and a girl. Looking at the girl in front of me again I recognize her from last night, she spent the night in my target's room. I'm through and so is my sister when Mom and Dad find out. I close my eyes and wait for the inevitable hit to my head.

* * *

:Odd: 

I watch as he leans back against the tree and closes his eyes after looking down at my accomplices. I guess he wants me to hit him over the head, fat chance. Ulrich pulled out his phone and called the police, saying that he and two of his friends had averted a possible shooting at their school, Kadic Academy, and that they were in and around a tree near the Kadic Academy Chapel Building with the sniper being held up with his own gun. With my enhanced hearing I hear the person on the other side say that a pair of officers were on the way, as well as congratulating him on the capture.

I assume my position by lifting the rifle to my shoulder and hopping forward to pin him against the tree by the head again. I hear sirens approaching from the distance and he's looking at me, wide-eyed and reeking of fear as I begin to squeeze the trigger. I grin darkly at him and then notice a smell coming from his pants, he pissed himself in fright, how disgusting.

The officers arrive and head over towards where they can see my friends on the ground. I jump down from the tree and hand the rifle over to one of the officers.

"Here's his weapon, you'll find some of his DNA on the barrel, I stuck it to his forehead to keep him from moving."

Ulrich walks over and pulls the bullets from his pocket and hands them to the officer.

"I took these from the magazine after Odd knocked it out of the gunman's hands before throwing the rifle back up to her to make it easier for her to keep him from fighting."

Yumi walks forward and looks the officer in the eyes.

"After Odd apprehended him he told us that he was being employed by one Janice Crow, a student in the dorms here, to kill the principle's daughter, Elizabeth Delmas. If you want help getting him down from the tree we can have him down in a few seconds."

The officer shakes his head.

"You kids have done enough, thanks for bringing this guy in, he's wanted in connection to a couple other shootings, all by sniper. I'm sure this rifle has all the evidence we will need on it. Thanks again for stopping this maniac, although how a girl her size climbed that tree and knocked the gun out of his hands I will never know. You three will be subpoenaed to testify in court where you found him. As well as this contract killing you mentioned. Although how you got him to confess that his sister is involved...I'd like to know that sometime."

The three of us smile serenely and reply in unison.

"Of course, sir. We want to see this guy and his sister put behind bars."

As an after thought I add.

"As for how we got him to confess, let's just say Odd's a good actor, fighter, and climber."

The officer nods to us, with a confused look on his face. We head back to the chapel building to meet up with Sniper and Lancer to go shopping. After we meet up and head out to the front gate to use the town pass that Lancer got for our group for the rest of the afternoon and evening. I swear, sometimes this place is like a military school instead of a boarding school. We head into town and immediately board the bus for the mall, paying our fare and getting bus tokens for the return trip. The five of us go to the back of the bus sit down, talking amongst ourselves and checking our wallets and purses to make sure that we've got everything we'll need for this trip.

* * *

:Yumi: 

Ulrich calls his parents to tell them that he would be spending the evening with his friends and not to worry, he'd be back around 20:00 hours. I heard several curses over the phone as well as his dad yelling that he had to be back by five, no excuses. I'm sure the others half the bus heard what his father yelled into the phone, and he didn't have it in speaker mode. Ulrich just shuts his phone off, he told his parents when he would be home and he didn't really care what they thought. Curfew at Kadic was 20:30 hours. The whole bus stared at us, excluding the driver, then most of them realized they were staring when I made a comment along the lines of take a picture, it'll last longer. Three fourths of the riders turned back to whatever they were doing, but the guy sitting behind us made another comment.

"I would but I forgot my camera. Who was that on the phone?"

Ulrich sighs and looks back, seeing a guy I could identify as a plain clothes officer because of his thoughts and how his mind was set up.

"My father, I'm sick of how he and my mother have been treating me over the past few years and I'm going to hang out with my friends today. Besides, I completed the stuff he's going to want me to do this morning after he left for work."

The guy nods and leans back.

"Tell me, how do they treat you?"

Ulrich looks to me and I sigh, picking up on his question and answering telepathically.

'He's a policeman, Officer James Gordon, Homicide, and an all around black-and-white officer.'

Ulrich nods and looks back at him.

"Like shit. No matter how fast I do the chores assigned to me they beat me up and I've got the bruises to prove it."

Ulrich carefully removes his green jacket revealing his thin, white, short sleeve shirt and impressive amounts of bruising on his arms and several of the bruises under his shirt, as well as a bloodstained area on the shoulder of his shirt. James is taken aback by the amount of damage done to the kid's body. He pulls out his cell phone and calls the station. I speak up briefly.

"I didn't know about it until today after chapel, none of us did. He attends Kadic Academy, that boarding school we were picked up near with us."

James nods and in a hushed voice talks over the phone. He then turns to us and opens his mouth to speak, I speak up before him though.

"We have already taken measures to get Ulrich moved into the dorms. The young lady beside me is the daughter of the principle at Kadic. She has told her father about Ulrich's home situation and he has agreed to let him have a dorm there under his guardianship."

James looks at me strangely, his mind saying something like how did you know I was going to ask that. I turn around and face the front of the bus as Ulrich puts his jacket on again and says one final thing to Officer James Gordon.

"Don't bust them 'til I get my stuff tonight, Officer. My name is Ulrich Stern and my parents are Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Stern."

I sense his jaw drop when Ulrich calls him by his title. His thoughts are jumbled in his surprise but here's his clearest thoughts.

'How the hell did he know I'm an officer and why did he look at the girl beside him before he answered my second question. Why did that girl answer my third question before I even had a chance to ask it and why did he ask me not to bust his parents until tonight like he knew I was planning on doing it when I got off the bus.'

We all face the front and Officer James Gordon gets out a notepad and writes down some information then leans forward and taps me on the shoulder.

"Would you and your friends be willing to testify against Mr. Ulrich Stern's parents?"

I look over my shoulder and smile to him.

"Sure, we'd love to. We are going to buy a camcorder on this trip to catch them in the act tonight when we drop him off."

He looks at me in surprise.

'Damn, these kids are slick.'

"Alright, sounds like a plan. I'll be sure to stop by your school tomorrow to pick up the tape. As well as send a team from the SVU to pick up Mr. Stern's parents. Tell me, how long did it take you five to plan this out?"

Ulrich looks over his shoulder.

"Took us exactly four minutes and twenty seconds. Don't turn the cameragirl in at the school though, one of them will be spending the night staking out my family for the footage."

Officer Gordon smirks.

"You haven't told me which one of you will be staying behind to get the footage so I can't really turn you in."

"True. Just stop by room 215 around 17:00 hours tomorrow for the tape, the girl with the purple and blonde hair should be waiting for you."

He nods and leans back, very amused by the five of us.

'These kids look out for one another, I wish I had friends like them when I was in school. They're so supportive of one another. I'd really hate to cross a gang of criminals like this gang of kids.'

I smirk and tell the rest of the group, through telepathy, about what the officer behind Ulrich and I thought of our plan and us.

'He'd be afraid of us if we turned criminal, but then again if we didn't show restraint in using our powers everyone would be afraid of us.'

Odd's thoughts are loudest in response to that.

'Yeah, I can say that I would be afraid of us too, but then again I know our powers and he doesn't.'

All five of us grin as the bus pulls up to the mall and we get off, followed closely by Officer Gordon. We head into the building and head into the electronics store and buy a camera using a card linked to the KLC account. AelitaR had manufactured our debit cards and set it up, as well as changed the account to be in her name with the five of us having access to it as well as herself. Each card had it's own PIN, I paid for the camcorder and led Ulrich, Jeremie and Odd to the clothing store. Sissi and I went in first and then we started picking out stuff that would look good on Sissi in the eyes of the Defenders. We picked out a lot of darker clothes than what she used to wear.

Jeremie picked out a blood red tank top and a pair of black jeans. I picked out a black sweater top and a pair of blue jeans. Odd grabbed a purple T-shirt with some writing on it I didn't get a good look at and a pair of black jeans. Ulrich picked out a white shirt, a black leather jacket, and a pair of black jeans. Sissi picked out a couple of outfits for herself, but they were much different than the ones she used to wear, she also grabbed a pair of black leather gloves, just like the rest of us had. It's a part of being in our gang, our symbol if you will. There's also the bandanas and bracelets that Jeremie and AelitaR have been designing, but those won't be delivered for another two months, each of us will be getting four of them and they will be delivered to Jeremie's dorm room.

Trying on the outfits we found that all of our choices in color fit her new personality as Lancer. She even liked how they looked. Reading the shirt Odd picked for her brought a smile to her face, it said 'Cat Lady'. We all got a chuckle out of that when she wore it out of the dressing room. Going back to the racks we picked out several of each type of outfit before we went up to the front to pay for them. Sissi paid for them with her KLC card, not like we need to worry about it running out of funds, the account was above ten billion francs when Aelita last checked, which was over a decade ago when she was looking through the files of the super computer and stumbled on the funding of the Lyoko Project. The account for the KLC was over ten billion francs by itself, each individual complex had it's own account, most of them were in the billions.

* * *

:Jeremie: 

As we headed out we stopped at a jewelry shop and each bought a pendant, the pendants were all the same, a small yin-yang charm on a gold chain. The charm had a real meaning to us, we were all leading double lives, a normal life and a darker life defending Lyoko. I check the time, 18:00 hours, just enough time to stop and grab a bite to eat before we return to school. The five of us all stop at the food court and split up to get our food. After getting our food we sat down at the same table and began talking about the one thing we had an interest in, Lyoko. Ulrich starts off the conversation on Lyoko the game.

"How's the game coming along?"

"Pretty well, Otritza and the Keepers have been supplying ideas for it. We're almost ready to have an alpha test of the game. How would you guys like to do that?"

"Sounds cool. I can't wait 'til we get it ready. But here's the big question, what happens once we get the game out there and it becomes a big hit?"

"We live off the profits and keep producing the game, hell we might as well let XANA know about it, after all he's the one who gave us the idea."

That particular comment causes all of them to crack up. I think realistically on it, XANA might laugh at it and find it nice for a good laugh, but how do we tell him about it? He's an AI that lives in Lyoko and as far as the Keepers know he doesn't talk to anyone. The conversation then takes a slightly darker turn.

"Speaking of XANA, what does he usually try to do when he attacks?"

"Kill people, normally anyway. Often times he just wants to get rid of us, the Defenders. But occasionally he sends his attacks after civilians, just to give us reason to shut his attacks off and activate the Return To Past program. Or as we like to call it the Return Trip Protocol."

Sissi nods at that one. She shift the subject back to Lyoko the game.

"What's the game's title going to be?"

"Lyoko: The Silent War."

"Makes sense to me to call it that. What kind of game will it be?"

"We were thinking of making it an MMO, hosted on a server or two that we could set up in the KLC. We could offer to have the school beta test the game and have it go from there. I think that with proper marketing we may even get it to go all over Europe. Global is another matter though, but we won't know how well it does outside of France until we find out how well it does here first."

Sissi nods and goes quiet, probably thinking about how she could get her father to see letting my friends and I hand out our game to the school for beta testing. Odd speaks up next.

"I wonder, would it be worth it to maybe sell the finished product here after we beta test it at school. Besides, where would a bunch of kids get their hands on a server?"

"I've already ordered the servers, they will be arriving at the KLC on Tuesday, AelitaR and I will be signing for them, we've even gotten the proper connections all set up to the net and everything. Aelita and I were working on it last night, I even slept at the KLC, hence the time the Return Trip Protocol took us to, I only slept about two hours this morning."

Odd seems satisfied by my answer and quiets down. Ulrich speaks up next though.

"Guys, it's almost time for us to return to the school and Sissi, don't forget to give your dad the papers that need to be signed by him."

Sissi nods as we all stand up and prepare to return home. Sissi, Odd and I take the bags containing her clothes and Yumi takes the camcorder. We all walk back to the bus stop.

* * *

:Yumi: 

The bus arrives as we come to the bus stop. We've still got half an hour before we need to be back at the school to check in and still have our plan work. Ulrich and I sat together again, the two of us leaning against one another in an effort to comfort him. Ulrich and I have a mental conversation.

'Tonight ends your torment. I can't wait for it to happen either. I'm sorry about reading your mind without permission back at chapel.'

'You're forgiven. I just hope my parents get nice long sentences for beating me every day for the past nine years.'

'They've been beating you since you were five?'

'Yep, almost religiously too. Like they wouldn't survive if they didn't beat me at least once a day, each.'

I wrap my arm around him and kiss his forehead.

'Won't be happening anymore, we will make sure of that.'

'And for that I'm thankful, my love'

The bus pulls up to the school and we all get off, for some reason that trip seemed shorter than it did earlier, oh well. The five of us get off the bus and go up to the gate. The others check in while Ulrich and I head off to his house. The two of us walk up to the front of his house. I turn and walk down the alley beside his house and set myself up to where I can look into his living room unobstructed. I turn on the camcorder and teleport into the room. Using my Psionics I also make Ulrich's parents oblivious to myself and my shadow. I send the nod to Ulrich, indicating I'm in position with a telepathic message.

Ulrich opens the door, I focus the camera on Ulrich's parents, watching their head snap to the door as it opens. A few seconds later, after Ulrich walks into the room he goes past his parents, ignoring them at first, even though he knows they've seen him. He walks toward the staircase when his father shouts at him.

"Get you ass back here."

Ulrich sighs and turns around, walking back over to his parents, bracing himself for the coming assault.

"Why did you not come back at five like I ordered you to, be glad we even let you get that time on Sunday considering how you ran off on Saturday."

Ulrich sighs again, this time replying to him.

"I 'ran off' as you put it because my chores were already finished and you and Mom had left for work. I had the house spotless, you saw it. All the dishes were cleaned and there was nothing left to clean in the entire house."

"Don't talk back to me."

In the second it took Ulrich's father to say that he had crossed the room and punched Ulrich in the stomach hard enough to make him double over. A feat I have seen nobody else accomplish. Ulrich lays on the floor for a bit before coughing up a small amount of blood onto his sleeve. Ulrich forces himself to stand again, this time leaning on the banister and panting heavily. I feel his pain, excruciating, how can he stand this?

Ulrich smirks faintly at his father.

"Is that any way to treat your only son?"

Ulrich's father bristles at the comment and takes a step back as his wife crosses the room in seconds and plants her fist against Ulrich's shoulder. I feel the pain as his shoulder dislocates, ouch. Ulrich doesn't fall from his mother's blow, however his father soon follows up with a nasty strike to the back of the head, knocking Ulrich onto his knees. Ulrich stands again, my eyes are watering from the amount of pain he's had to endure so far, how does he stand it? Ulrich starts to limp toward his room, signaling me to teleport into there. I shut the camcorder off and teleport it to my dorm room before teleporting into Ulrich's room. Ulrich opens the door and collapses into his room. His parents look like they are going to continue the beatings, right up until they reach the threshold of Ulrich's room. Something stops them from passing over the threshold. The two of them walk off, pissed that they couldn't express their feelings toward Ulrich because of the nature of his room and the charms placed on the doorway. I look at one of the charms, smiling slightly to myself.

'Let No Evil pass through this gate.' It obviously works too. I gather Ulrich's things and prepare to teleport us both and most of Ulrich's stuff to Jeremie's dorm. After I teleport myself and Ulrich to Jeremie's room I quietly and quickly head upstairs to get at least an hour of sleep. Odd is standing beside the door twirling the tape between her fingers.

'Ulrich's parents are going to pay for hurting our friend. The trial's only the beginning.'

'I agree, after the trial I'll send them both to the brink of insanity and push them in.'

'Good girl, now rest up. XANA's not going to stay asleep for long. We pissed him off something fierce today.'

And with that thought the two of us change into our night clothes and hit the hay. Tomorrow's gonna be a very fun day.

* * *

Author's Note: Sorry for the delay, got a new game and got pulled back into an old one. Hope the extra long chap makes up for it. 22 pages in WordPerfect 10, on 12 point type.  
Also, I'd like to ask that you guys give me ideas for Otritza and Myst's new Lyoko forms.  



End file.
